


(New Story) Roy Causes Mischief and Gilbert Deserves It

by Rozmund



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Eventual Smut, F/M, Jealousy, Roy messes with Gilbert for breaking Anne's heart, lots of fluff, mischievous Roy is still mischievous, set after Season 3 Episode 10, some Gilbert sobbing while Anne battles illness, still pushes Gilbert's buttons every chance he gets
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 50,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21636814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rozmund/pseuds/Rozmund
Summary: Chapter 27 is up! Nothing here but bedroom shenanigans and people who love each other... (also, turns out there is one more chapter after this).(This is the story where Anne eventually falls gravely ill and Gilbert sobs through several chapters, if you're into that kind of thing. Then there's mild smut.)Compliant with canon through the end of Season 3, at the brilliant suggestion of a commenter I have reimagined mischievous Roy Gardner, because I can only imagine what he would do if his darling Anne had her heart broken the way it was in episodes 7-10 (until the end). Naturally he will spend much of his time pushing Gilbert's buttons, because he's very good at it and he's feeling very protective of Anne after her recent heartbreak.The first two chapters are similar to the other work because it's the same Roy and he has the same kind of relationship with Anne. I reworked it only to make the timelines and circumstances fit canon. Different story with the same characters starting at chapter 3.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley, Roy Gardner/Anne Shirley
Comments: 269
Kudos: 536





	1. Enter Roy Gardner

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Roy Causes Mischief and Gilbert Should Thank Him](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21270767) by [Rozmund](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rozmund/pseuds/Rozmund). 



Anne had come to visit Cole and Aunt Jo one more time, as they both hoped it would help to soothe her frazzled nerves after her last, heart-wrenching visit and would be a welcome treat before studying for the Queen’s entrance examination overtook all of her time. Marilla had relented to allow her to travel without a chaperone, having received assurances from Aunt Jo that someone would be there to collect her at the train station. Anne was saddened that Diana was not permitted to come along on this weekend jaunt, her mother being quite put out with one of Diana’s recent outbursts about finishing school. Still, Cole revealed in his last letter that they would be having a party on her first night with a few of Aunt Jo’s dearest friends and a contingent of Cole’s art school classmates. Anne couldn’t wait to find out if Cole had represented the colorful cast of characters at his school with accuracy.

. . .

Roy Gardner might take a certain pride in his troublemaker reputation, but he did have some principles. Principle one – he didn’t set out to deceive anyone (well, unless they deserved it). Principle two – he didn’t take liberties with unwilling partners (willing partners not being difficult to find in certain circles). Principle three – he did everything in his power to make those he loved feel his admiration as much as possible. He may have not even reached twenty, but he felt that as a real man he must maintain certain standards.

So by the time he finished his first delightful evening with Anne Shirley-Cuthbert in Aunt Jo’s well-appointed salon, he was resolved to live out his third principle to the fullest, even if he was somewhat regretful that principle two would prevent him from ever discovering if her rosy lips tasted as intoxicating as they looked. In fact, doing so would also violate principle one, because he had already promised his school chum Cole to treat Anne, whom Cole had repeatedly stressed he loved as much as anyone in the world, with utmost respect and caution. Roy would never break that promise, even if he wished, from the moment he laid eyes on her, that he could. Oh well, his principles wouldn’t stop him from telling her that her hair was like a lustrous, fiery waterfall and insisting that she should try a new, upswept style that was sure to show off every hint of bronze and ruby to its full potential.

Anne received his open admiration with a hint of shock, then collapsed into giggles. “Cole told me that you are an irrepressible flirt,” she said, eyes sparkling. “It’s like you’re reciting the pages of a novel. I thought only I did those things.”

“I’ve already spent two hours in your wonderful company. This is me holding myself back,” he replied smoothly, allowing his eyes to rove briefly over her tresses. “Surely you know that what I say is the truth.”

“Well, my hair may finally have darkened to auburn as I had hoped, but I still expect to get by in life with my wits, as I am far too plain to rely on my looks.” She finished her declaration matter-of-factly, expecting neither pity nor argument. She believed it to be true, and in fact was rather proud that at least she had her wits to recommend her.

At least with her wits, she stood a chance to achieve her dream of being a bride of adventure, thinking herself far too argumentative and difficult to be a bride of any other kind. _Perhaps if one day I learned not to put my foot in it when I’m speaking_ , she thought wryly. Since she had never managed such a feat before, though, it seemed unlikely. She realized with a start that she was woolgathering, and Roy Gardner was watching her, speechless.

“Please tell me what fool ever gave you the notion that you are plain, and I will skewer him through.”

Anne laughed. “It’s been quite a few fools, actually.”

“How fortunate that I am an excellent swordsman, then, with boundless energy. I shall skewer them all.” His face turned serious. “You shouldn’t believe any of them. Whatever they said, it’s just flatly wrong.” His casual grin returned quickly. “I should know about beauty. I am an art student, after all.”

. . .

Roy Gardner was by Anne’s side every moment that weekend, and they, along with Cole, occupied themselves with every amusement they could find. It was really best that Marilla never learned of Anne’s penchant for signing up for any wild idea Roy put into their heads, including the fact that she and Cole snuck out of Aunt Jo’s house on Saturday night because Roy insisted that the sunrise over the water was too incredible to miss. He and Anne were instant friends, and after he promised to write to her he faithfully sent two or three letters every week. Marilla began to wonder a bit at the sudden attention she was receiving, but Anne brushed it off so she said nothing further after a few pointed questions.

Occasionally, he would shock her with his bold admiration and libertine approach to love, declaring on the first night they met that he would probably have 100 lovers in his lifetime. He delighted in regaling her with stories of shocking love affairs (frankly, he left out most of the more scandalous details) and matchmaking. Anne learned quickly not to let Marilla see the contents of the letters, for she didn’t think Marilla would entirely approve. Certainly, Marilla might wonder at Roy’s constant praise, for Anne knew that referring to her as “his fiery haired goddess” did not actually imply anything meaningful at all, but it was hard to convey Roy's manner of expressing himself without knowing him.

She told him of her plans to help when Mary was dying, of the upcoming fair, of her righteous anger at Billy Andrews and her article. He read each letter with unfailing admiration for her passion and love of friends and family. He, in turn, took every opportunity to share that admiration with her.

 _It is a shame though_ , he wrote after admitting in one letter that he had been expelled from a previous boarding school for all manner of scandalous activities, preventing him from remaining in the august social world of Toronto. _If it thought for a minute that I could be a proper husband to anyone I’d make you my wife in a second. Alas, rest assured that I am doing the best thing for you by loving you only as my stunning, creative, unfailingly sweet friend_.

Anne laughed aloud reading that one. She couldn’t help but respond the next time she wrote.

_Yes, I rather think you wouldn’t be able to make a proper husband if you have to make the time for 100 lovers! Have you considered, at least, restricting your activities in Charlottetown so that you can remain, if only for my sake?_

He was flirtatious with everyone but wrote and said such fantastically exaggerated statements that she couldn’t help but be amused, assuming he meant only about 10 percent of the things he said. He was dear to her all the same, and she was grateful to have another caring chum to soothe her heart, even if she didn’t wish to tame him into husband material.


	2. Roy Falls in Love, in a Roy Sort of Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Similar to chapter 2 of previous work because it is important to understanding Roy and how he feels about Anne.

It was fun to have a delectable secret to distract her, though, as things took a terrible turn otherwise in her life. At least in the moments when she despaired that she would have to watch Gilbert Blythe fall in love with another, she could turn back to her amusing friend’s letters and know that someone enjoyed her company. She thought a time or two that if all else failed, perhaps she could one day take Roy up on his offer and see a bit of Europe, as long as she could somehow avoid ending up in whatever a _ménage à trois_ was (Cole didn’t let Roy elaborate when that one came up). That might be sufficiently distracting for a while to forget that the only man she’d ever loved clearly preferred women ever more sophisticated and elegant than she.

She didn’t dare mention Gilbert to Roy, for it was far too painful to be shared on paper. He did sense the slight melancholy in her letters as Gilbert’s courtship wore on, but when asked about it she demurred.

_It is an affair of the heart, I am afraid,_ was all she would write. _I promise to tell you the truth in person when I see you._

She returned one more time for a day trip, while she was waiting anxiously for her Queen’s exam results. As Cole was still occupied with an end of school project, only Roy escorted her that day (another fact it was best Marilla never knew). Her devastation at the news of Gilbert’s engagement was heavy on her heart, but for one day she preferred to leave it behind. She and Roy set out for a picnic along the shore, where Anne regaled Roy with stories from her life in Avonlea, finally ending with an admission about how she ended up there is the first place. Roy listened far more seriously than he normally managed, marveling at just how much this incredible creature had endured.

“I took care of so many children at the asylum. And three sets of twins! Three sets of twins is entirely too many.”

At her words, Roy’s normally unfailingly cheerful face fell. “Roy, whatever is the matter?”

“It’s nothing,” he said carefully, hoping to recover his footing without further awkwardness.

“No, it’s not.” Anne’s stubbornness wouldn’t fail her now. “How many secrets have I told you today?”

“Fine,” he muttered, “I’ll tell you just this once and then I would prefer never to speak of it again.” Anne nodded gently. “I was a twin,” he said simply.

“Was,” Anne’s voice was barely above a whisper, grasping the full, terrible meaning behind that one word.

“It was a carriage accident, two years ago.” He sounded very far away now, lost in memory. He watched Anne closely for a moment before he decided to continue. “The worst part,” he said, taking a deep breath, “is that I was cross with him that day. We were best friends, but he was taking a girl I secretly fancied out for a ride. We lost her too. I still don’t know – did he realize I was cross? Did he die thinking I was angry with him?” He struggled to suppress a sob.

Anne leaned over to look straight at him, eyes full of compassion. _Tragical stories are only exciting on paper_ , she thought, and not when watching the full consequences of the tragedy play out right in front of her.

“You should talk to him,” she offered. Roy’s expression shifted from regret to confusion. “Have you visited his grave?”

“I don’t know if I can,” he said hoarsely.

“Would you like me to go with you?” she asked, a gentle hand on his shoulder. He stared hard into the water for a moment and nodded.

. . .

They went immediately, for Roy was afraid of losing his nerve. As they neared the cemetery, her normally unstoppable chatter ceased. She observed him closely as he forced himself to walk the paths of the cemetery, willing for all the world that somehow the gravestone would be gone when he reached the spot and the nightmare wouldn’t be real.

“I should go alone,” Roy rasped. “No one needs to watch this.”

Anne slipped her hand into his. “Cole watched me on the worst day of my life. I thank God every day that he didn’t leave me.”

Roy finally found the gravestone, its etched letters still fresh but the grass around it beginning to fill in. It occurred to him that each time he came, it would be a little more worn and grown over. He wondered if the ache in his heart would ever wear the same way. Finally, he gave into his grief and wept, tracing his fingers over his brother’s name.

They lingered for hours, Anne never letting go of his hand. When Roy was ready, he helped her up and they walked slowly back to the carriage.

“Thank you,” he said softly. “I felt so guilty to him that I hadn’t visited.”

“I will always go with you,” she assured him. “I would never let a friend go through such sorrow alone.”

“My darling Anne,” he teased, a hint of his usual mischief returning.

She gave a little laugh. “And how many ‘darlings’ do you have?”

He inclined his head at the truth of her question, and replied, “It’s not important. I only have one darling Anne.”

Not for the last time, Roy wished that he was the marrying kind, for he suspected there would never be another Anne in his world. Alas, he loved her too much to pretend that he was, so he would have to do the next best thing and find her a husband who deserved her.


	3. Roy Would Like to Throw Gilbert in a Ditch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne tells Roy of her heartbreak with Gilbert, and Roy would like to thrash him.

Roy remembered her earlier melancholy once they had quitted to a nearby tea house, not one to forget that a friend was in need of a chat.

“Darling Anne,” he started, “now that we have addressed my heartbreak, what is happening with that gorgeous soul of yours?”

“I’ve – I’ve just been, facing rejection I guess.” She was uncharacteristically reticent, which Roy found particularly concerning. Soon her face registered deep anguish, and Roy lifted her chin so that her eyes met his.

“Please, tell me.”

She could hold it in no more and told him everything, including pulled pigtails, arguments, academic competition, dance practices, attractive chins, beautiful rich women at fairs, and all. Roy had not become such a successful lover by being a bad listener, so he gently encouraged her along until she came to the end of the entire tale.

“So you see, I believed he was my destiny but obviously I was wrong. It is a good thing that I have so many plans for my life as a bride of adventure,” she finished, trying her best to hold back tears.

“Who is he?” Roy asked tenderly.

Anne smiled. “Not in a million years. If I tell you I know you’ll be on the next train to Avonlea and I’ll find him bloodied in a ditch.”

“I fail to see the problem.”

Anne gave his shoulder a friendly pat. “I appreciate the gesture, but I am not going to punish him for simply caring for someone else.” Even as she said it, her voice hitched slightly.

Roy wished they were somewhere more private, so that he could give her the comforting, friendly hug she so clearly needed.

“I suppose you already know my opinion on the matter, since I cannot understand how there could be a woman in the world that any man would prefer to you.” He knew by the look on her face that she didn’t entirely believe him, but he was determined to make her see the truth with time. “Should I list for you the men who have glanced admiringly at you just since we walked into this establishment? I have a very good eye for these things.” Of course, he was one of the men who was admiring her loosely tumbling hair and becoming figure, but he wasn't about to admit to it right now.

She rewarded him with a short laugh. “I’d rather not, thank you.”

“I am serious. You know me – I certainly would never judge anyone for preferring a life of adventure and, well, in my case hedonism, to matrimony. But if you think you will never find a worthy man who adores you, that is simply incorrect.”

Unfortunately, this observation didn’t have quite the effect he’d hoped. “I suppose we’ll see if you’re right, someday. But for now, I’ve lost the man of my dreams.”

In some odd way, Roy knew precisely how she felt, since he was also impossibly in love and currently watching the object of his most fervent love weep over another man. He would have found it difficult to like any man that Anne loved, but in that moment he loathed the man who had dared to make his darling Anne cry.

“Please, promise me you won’t say anything to Cole. I’d like to tell him myself.” Roy would agree to anything when it came to his darling Anne, so he nodded. He made her promise to seek him out if anything happened.

“I don’t care if you send a 200 word telegram. I’ll pay for it all. Promise me.”

She nodded her assent.

In the following weeks, as the news went from bad to worse, Anne dutifully updated Roy by letter. Her tone was matter-of-fact, for she was too devastated to convey the full extent of her feelings in writing. When Roy first learned of the likely engagement, he was so incensed that he nearly traveled to Avonlea anyway, assuming that it wouldn’t be too difficult to find the blackguard who had recently become engaged to a debutante for his professional gain. He knew she would never thank him for interfering in such a way, though, so he held back. He still had not told Cole, but he was dying for Anne to finally reveal the truth so that he would finally have someone to listen to his infuriated opinions on the matter.


	4. Anne's Friends Have Opinions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne's closest friends learn of her new relationship, and they are full of opinions about the matter.

After Gilbert shockingly appeared at her door and gave her the kiss of her dreams, Anne had remained quiet about the entire thing to everyone but Diana (they easily convinced Mr. Barry to keep quiet, since he had no interest whatsoever in participating in the messy romantic tangles of young people). After learning of his conversation with Diana on the train and Winifred’s explanation, she felt sure he loved her just as much as she loved him, but she preferred not to make any public declarations until she had some more answers to her follow-up questions by post. To Marilla she had confided that Gilbert was not engaged and that they were pen pals, but she decided against telling her just how…friendly they were.

Anne had not yet seen Roy, given the whirlwind surrounding the move to Charlottetown and recent events. The night before classes were to start, she and Diana arrived at Aunt Jo’s house for a celebratory dinner. Naturally, Cole and Roy were to be present as well.

Diana and Anne arrived before Roy, so Anne pulled Cole aside to tell him the wonderful news about Gilbert. “He is not engaged; he said he couldn’t go through with it because he loves me.” Cole was genuinely thrilled to see the joy on his dear friend’s face, but the turn of events left him a bit shocked and unsure what to think about Gilbert. “Diana is a hero; somehow she caught him on the train over here and learned that he had never received my letter. He came running straight from the train to see me.” By now her eyes were misty with memory, and Cole decided to let her have her joy. “Sadly, he is at the University of Toronto, so for now we are pen pals and I am not planning to share any of this with people other than Diana, you, and Roy.”

Roy arrived just then, and Aunt Jo and Diana returned. They set aside their conversation for now, and Roy was left without an important update to the story.

They had a wonderful dinner with lively, hilarious conversation. Anne, Diana, and Roy were all scheduled to begin Queen’s the following day, so they excitedly traded information about classes, professors, school clubs, and new classmates.

“You both are going to be the toast of Queens, I just know it,” Roy began jovially. “I can already think of a half-dozen gentlemen who are sure to be visiting your boarding house at the proper hour.”

Anne was unable to fully contain herself a moment longer. “You can just tell any gentlemen who ask after me that my heart is already taken, so they do not bother wasting any time on me.”

Roy was rarely surprised, but this declaration caused considerable shock. He was also rendered temporarily speechless, a state more than a few of his friends and lovers might have wished he would occupy more frequently.

Anne leaned over to Roy, hoping Aunt Jo wouldn’t overhear. “He is not engaged after all and he loves me. I will tell you everything later.”

“Anne, do you wish to tell us something about this young gentlemen?” Aunt Jo asked shrewdly.

“As of now we are…discussing how we wish to move forward in the future, so I hope you will understand if I ask that we all keep this quiet. I only know that Roy here would find me a beau in a moment if I asked, and I wish to spare him the trouble.”

Aunt Jo nodded simply, not wanting to cause the Anne-girl any discomfort. “Well then, might I trouble you for your thoughts on the benefit for a moment?”

As Anne departed to discuss her ideas for Aunt Jo’s latest charity event, Roy turned to Cole, unable to hold himself back any longer.

“I am utterly confused. Did she tell you -?”

Cole glanced at Diana, knowing full well that she knew exactly what had transpired between Anne and Gilbert, but unsure of her opinion on the matter.

“Perhaps we should discuss this later –“

“But does anyone know where this fellow is so that I can punch him in the face just once before this goes any further?”

Diana’s eyes went wide. “You know about Gilbert?!” They all glanced nervously at the door but heard nothing. Roy made no effort to cover his amusement that Diana knew precisely whom he wished to thrash.

“I could kill him,” Cole began fiercely, unable to keep it in any longer. “I told Anne two years ago that he had a crush on her. What was he thinking waiting until the last possible moment, and after almost marrying someone else, to say _anything_?”

“It might make you feel better to know that I told Gilbert exactly what I think of his recent behavior,” Diana said with no small satisfaction.

“You did?!” If Roy wasn’t going to be able to do it himself, he was more than happy to hear that someone else had taken up the mantle. “And, ha, Cole, I told you I could get a name out of someone.”

“You didn’t even have to try, Roy,” Cole said in exasperation.

“I would have bothered to try if necessary, but should one really be so disappointed to achieve a goal with minimal effort? I think not.” He turned back to Diana. “So his name is Gilbert you say?”

“ _Don’t_ give him a last name,” Cole interjected. “If he decides to torture Gilbert from a distance, we should at least make him put in the effort to track down the right Gilbert.”

“A distance?” Now Roy was surprised for a second time that night.

“He is studying at – another – University,” Diana replied, remembering at the last minute Cole’s comment about torture.

“You are telling me that this fellow nearly got engaged, told Anne he loved her at the last possible moment, and then left town?!” Roy was now fairly certain that he hated surprises, for this story became more dumbfounding with every passing moment.

“As it stands, most of Avonlea still believes him to be engaged! He left without telling anyone the truth, except me and Anne. As a matter of fact, it turned out that Gilbert’s former – I don’t know, sweetheart?” They all gave a slight shudder. “Anyway, Anne ran into her by accident and she’s the one who told Anne that there was no engagement.” Diana finished this statement and found two pairs of incredulous eyes staring back at her.

“I’m not wanting to kill him any less,” Cole muttered.

“I’ve been seeking out every opportunity to set our classmates straight, since I don’t want Anne stuck hearing about it and having to correct the matter herself. I did tell my father to spread the word as much as he can back home, but I don’t know if he can be trusted to properly spread gossip. I should have told him to go to Rachel Lynde first,” Diana continued regretfully. “Then he wouldn’t have had to bother speaking to anyone else.”

“Well, what did Gilbert have to say for himself when you confronted him?” Cole pressed.

“He didn’t say too much but there wasn’t much time. I found out he wasn’t engaged or going to Queen’s and finally went to give him a piece of my mind. He seemed very surprised that I had noticed he’s been smitten with Anne forever –“

“Did he think he _hid it well_?! He stared at her so much he should have just glued his eyes to her backside.” Cole shook his head.

“Pardon me?” Roy exclaimed.

“Roy, please. I am not stupid and you have looked a time or two yourself.”

“Well we aren’t talking about me, now are we? Though it would seem then that he has at least a scintilla of good taste,” Roy admitted.

Diana sprang to the edge of her seat, overjoyed that she could finally share her frustrations on this subject with a friendly audience. She hadn’t wanted to ruin Anne’s happiness by saying too much in front of her. In fact, she had kept even her description of their conversation on the train somewhat limited. “Yes, staring, using every opportunity to talk to her, and then that dance practice! I’m surprised he made it through the steps, for all he spent the entire time mooning over Anne.” Diana gave a frustrated sigh at the memory. “Then I started listing off every idiotic thing he’s done the past few months, starting with that fair.” Cole and Roy nodded in agreement with that one. “And then asking her how she felt about him _when she was drunk and dancing around a fire at a party?_ Who thinks that is a good time to discuss marriage in any way?” Diana threw up her hands. “I think I rendered him speechless for a moment because he wasn’t saying much of anything, until I brought up the letter.”

Roy leaned in, never one to want to miss good drama. “Go on…”

“I told him the worst part was that he didn’t respond to her letter, where she told him she loved him. That was the first time he said anything. He obviously didn’t know about the letter at all and his expression completely changed when I brought it up. I told him again that she wrote him a letter saying she loved him and left it at his house. He said he never saw any letter at all and by then he was completely losing his composure and begging me to tell him where she was. The train was almost at the station and he ran like his life depended on it the second that the train stopped. It was a bit romantic,” she admitted with a small smile. “He even forgot his luggage.”

Cole and Roy exchanged glances. At least Gilbert was giving some encouraging signs of his feelings, but both of them were not entirely inclined to set aside their anger just yet.

“I assume he found her, then?” Cole asked.

Diana nodded. “They could only see each other for a moment but I know he kissed her and then when she learned about his, er, school plans, they agreed to be pen pals.”

“PEN PALS?” Roy was afraid he’d said that a touch too loudly, but still they heard nothing outside the door. Roy buried his face in his hands. Perhaps this fellow could be brought up to scratch, but Roy despaired that he might have his work cut out for him.

“They always did have their own sense of humor between them and Anne seems to find it charming, so…” Diana shrugged.

“But did he explain himself at all?” Cole interjected. Roy was still too overcome with shock about the pen pals business for follow up questions.

“There wasn’t really time. They said they would write to each other, so I hope he starts sorting things out in his letters. I did see him give her one more _very thorough_ kiss before he left, and he looked completely thrilled, for what it’s worth.”

 _Another point for the mystery suitor_ , Roy thought. Perhaps Roy’s efforts wouldn’t have to be so arduous, after all. Only time would tell, he supposed.

“Has she received a letter?” Roy asked. Diana smiled to herself at their relentless questions. It was nice to know that her best friend had a few more champions in her corner.

Diana shook her head. “Not yet, but I expect she will any day now. I feel like I have already interfered too much, but I do think I should write to him about one thing.” Roy raised his eyebrows at her. “It’s just – hardly anyone in Avonlea knows exactly what happened with the almost-engagement and Anne’s part in it. I worry that she will be blamed if it is suddenly revealed that they are in a relationship instead, and only Anne is here to face everyone. You know how Avonlea folks can be, especially to Anne,” Diana said, looking at Cole pointedly. He nodded his agreement, and the three of them exchanged worried looks.

“Perhaps it would be best to suggest that they wait until some time has passed, and this fellow is here to explain himself,” Roy agreed.

Diana consented reluctantly, and hoped for all the world that this messy business would be done soon so that her best friend could simply enjoy the ardent love she so deserved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I enjoy the concept here that still, even after Anne and Gilbert are together, not everyone has all of the information. Anne's friends might feel differently if they knew the whole story, but they don't and so they're naturally still worried.


	5. Roy Adores Anne and Gilbert Hates Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy and Gilbert finally meet, and predictably Gilbert cannot stand him. Also, Cole is still high-key mad. :)

Diana wrote to Gilbert straight away, hoping it wasn’t too late to prevent either of them from revealing too much. She also watched the letters stacked in the parlor like a hawk, hoping to intercept any from Gilbert before their housemates began asking questions about his correspondence with Anne. In the meantime, Anne wrote her first sweet, loving letter to Gilbert, full of her excitement about learning of her birth parents and the thrills of her new life at Queens. Though she did have plenty of follow up questions, she hesitated to ask too many in this first letter, afraid of marring her new relationship with uncomfortable mentions of the recent past.

She received a letter from Gilbert almost immediately (Diana had hidden it under her pillow until Anne returned to the boarding house that evening). This first letter he had written hastily on the train, unwilling to let another moment pass without pouring out his feelings. He reproduced the entirety of the letter she had torn up (naturally, he hadn't forgotten a word of it), and she was left hugging the paper to her breast, overwhelmed by the words he wrote. He promised to return to Charlottetown soon so that they could talk more in person and expressed again his unsurpassed joy at learning that she loved him back.

Shortly thereafter, Diana received a letter, though Anne never learned of it. Gilbert reluctantly agreed that Diana had a point and asked for her help to keep the secret. Anne received a letter the same day, reminding her again in the tenderest terms that he loved her and he always will, but suggesting that they remain quiet about the change in their relationship for now, until Gilbert could be sure that Anne would not face any unfair judgment alone. He admitted that he already told Bash the truth (knowing the man would want ample time to prepare jokes at his expense about the matter), but Bash would never reveal anything without permission. It was the closest that either of them came to mentioning his relationship with Winifred up to that point, and Anne found herself more uncomfortably affected than she cared to admit at the thought of her.

After an evening discussing the problem with Diana and cursing life for being so difficult, Anne responded and agreed. They would discuss their official status when he came to visit in a few weeks and decide when to make it public. Until then, Anne did find herself fending off a few unwanted visitors to the boarding house on Saturday afternoons, but she brushed away their attentions easily and reminded herself that it was for the best and would all be over soon.

. . .

Anne finally found the time to tell Roy the entire story the following Saturday, when they arranged to walk with Cole and Diana in a nearby park. Cole and Diana were so chummy in front of them that they nearly looked like sweethearts, which amused both Roy and Anne. Gilbert’s first letter was too precious to her heart to reveal every word of it, but she conveyed the meaning clearly enough – Gilbert had always loved her, and someday he wanted to marry her.

“So in the end, I wasn’t mistaken after all,” she finished, practically beaming with happiness. “Once we are ready to make our courtship public, I cannot wait for you to meet him. He’s so sweet and smart. Did I tell you, that we have decided to read the same book at the same time so that we can talk about it in our letters? I’d rather be reading together outside in the sunshine, but it’ll have to do for now.” It was obvious that Anne’s vivid imagination was now far away, sharing imaginary picnics with her beau.

“Is the courtship at least official, then?”

Anne shook her head. “He suggested we talk about it when he comes to visit next.” Anne didn’t mention that Gilbert was in fact coming for a long weekend break in October. She knew perfectly well that Roy would probably have a long and unforgiving memory about her earlier heartbreak, so it seemed safer to avoid an official introduction for now.

Roy was still unsure about his feelings around this development. He would have a difficult enough time giving up Anne to anyone, but most of what he knew so far gave him pause. Why the change of heart? Would he change his mind when another opportunity presented itself to get ahead? He felt the panic rising, but he didn’t want to ruin Anne’s happiness. He reminded himself that Anne’s judgment was generally sound, assuming he could wait until he knew more about this fellow. If he turned out to be unworthy, Roy felt sure he wouldn’t rest until he had fixed it in some way.

. . .

Gilbert’s visit happened to fall on the night of Aunt Jo’s charity event, so rather than risk revealing their relationship by meeting him at the train station, they agreed to meet at Aunt Jo’s house. She told Roy only that an old classmate from Avonlea would be passing through town so _Cole_ had invited him, and Roy nearly laughed out loud at this obvious ruse.

Roy picked up Anne from the boarding house to escort her over to the event. Diana, sadly, had returned home for the weekend as her mother was ill. As they stood in the salon enjoying the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, as played by Aunt Jo’s very impressive pianist, he saw the dark-haired Gilbert as soon as he arrived. Anne’s back was to the door so she missed the young man's entrance, but Gilbert obviously had eyes for no one in the room except Anne. Roy smoothly leaned over to ask Anne if she thought the pretty young lady in the corner was looking at him (she was), letting his eyes briefly rove over Anne’s figure admiringly. Anne was busy watching the young lady in question and missed Roy’s unconcealed admiration. She nodded subtly, for she did indeed think the young lady was interested. Roy did not notice her agreement at all, being far more interested in the fact that this Gilbert was staring daggers at him.

“I assume you don’t need help?” Anne asked.

“Of course not,” he smiled warmly and stepped away. Gilbert had been taking his time walking over, presumably because he was trying to decide how to get rid of Roy without drawing attention to his relationship with Anne.

 _Imagine being so stupid that you have to pretend not to be with Anne instead of shouting from the rooftops on day one_ , Roy thought as he watched Gilbert carefully approach. _It boggles the mind._

Gilbert quietly greeted her, still trying not to reveal too much. They failed completely to hide the tenderness in their eyes, but he made no move to touch her, much as it killed him. He leaned over to whisper that he missed her, and her expression left no doubt that she felt the same. They chatted for a few moments about his trip and school, before Gilbert asked a question that had weighed a bit on his mind.

“Does anyone here know?” he asked quietly.

“Cole knows pretty much everything. Oh, I suppose Roy knows that there is someone, but he doesn’t know it’s you.”

“Who is Roy?” Gilbert tried valiantly to hide his unhappiness upon learning that a man whose name he’d never heard before evidently knew enough about Anne to be party to their secret.

Anne gestured in Roy’s direction, thankfully missing Gilbert’s flash of annoyance as he realized that the man in question was in fact the one who had been speaking to Anne with such familiarity earlier. Gilbert also couldn’t help but notice that the fellow was tall, good-looking, and practically oozing confidence. It would have been to Gilbert’s benefit to realize that the tall, good-looking, confident Roy was also flirting shamelessly with another young lady, but by then he was too suspicious of Roy’s intentions with Anne to notice much of anything else about him.

“He’s a friend from Queens, although he also knows Cole so I suppose I should say we were friends before Queens. I had to tell him, or I risked him trying to throw eligible men in my direction. It’s too hard to describe him in a letter but I thought I’d introduce you to him here – he’s very amusing.”

Gilbert opened his mouth to follow up on that answer, not finding it particularly comforting, but Cole joined them just then. He nodded briefly at Gilbert and gave him a quick handshake, before saying, “Aunt Jo has asked that Anne join her for a moment in the dining room. Something to do with the auction.”

Anne flashed another gentle smile at Gilbert and departed. He turned to Cole. “It sounds like you are doing well. Anne mentioned your exhibition.”

“Yes, thank you.” Gilbert wondered if he detected a hint of coolness in Cole’s response, but just then Roy appeared. Gilbert sucked in a breath to keep from scowling.

“Cole, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

Gilbert reached out a hand. “I’m Gilbert Blythe.”

 _Ah, a last name, finally_.

“I saw you speaking to Anne just now. Do you know our darling Anne from school?”

Whatever effort Gilbert thought he was making to avoid glowering at Roy was failing completely. “We are _good_ friends.”

“Hm, so funny, she hasn’t mentioned your name.” If Gilbert was as subtle about his feelings for Anne as he was about his feelings for Roy at that moment, Roy could not understand for the life of him what took the two of them so long to sort things out. “Well Anne is looking splendid this evening, isn’t she? I daresay, some figures are simply designed for modern fashions.”

Gilbert certainly couldn’t pummel this man in the middle of Aunt Jo’s party, but he was left a bit unsure how exactly he was supposed to respond, not being particularly interested in learning any more about this man’s opinion on Anne’s…anything.

Cole supposed he should have expected this kind of thing, but as it was he kept his eyes carefully trained on Gilbert’s tie to avoid bursting into laughter. It occurred to him just then that Gilbert probably wasn’t as level-headed as he liked to think, especially where Anne was concerned. Gilbert already looked close to murder and Cole could be certain that Roy wasn’t nearly finished.

Suddenly Gilbert’s face brightened, and Roy turned to see that Anne was approaching.

 _At least he looks at her like she’s the center of the universe, I’ll give him that_ , Roy thought approvingly.

“Anne, I was just asking your schoolmate Gilbert here about himself. Since you are just passing through town, I assume you have chosen to move on to another part of the country?”

“I am attending the University of Toronto, but, er, I came to visit family,” he explained lamely. “I plan to attend medical school after this.”

“The University of Toronto, is that right?” Cole tried to suppress a groan. He dreaded to think of the pranks Roy would try to pull at Gilbert’s dorm. The 1,000 mile distance would hardly discourage him in the least.

Finally, blessedly, Cole and Roy left, and Gilbert was able to steal a few more minutes with Anne. It still wasn’t the place to talk about anything serious, but he was grateful to see her all the same.

Eventually he spotted Roy again, and this time he couldn’t help but ask about him. “Oh yes, this…Roy, how did he come to know about us?”

She laughed. “I told him back when, well, when I thought you were, um, going to Paris,” her voice wavered a bit and Gilbert tensed to see her reaction, “but I didn’t tell him your name then. I had to tell him at least that everything had worked out, or he would be worried to death for me.”

“Oh?”

She waved off the question. “Don’t mind him; he’s harmless. He’s just, he’s very affectionate with everyone and he sees himself a kind of older brother to me. Until we’re public it would be safer if we didn’t tell him. We’ll risk fewer people learning the truth that way.”

Gilbert really doubted that Roy’s feelings toward Anne were in any way brotherly, but this was not the time to press the matter.

“It’s like the relationship I have with Jerry, if Jerry was constantly trying to seduce half of Charlottetown.” Gilbert had no idea how to respond to that and was left sputtering instead until they were distracted by another guest coming to join them.

Over the next few hours, Gilbert became convinced that if there were a prize for fawning, Roy would be the champion of the world. It seemed he adored everything about Anne, and wasted no time telling her and anyone else who would listen. Of course, none of the praise was undeserved, but it was rather irritating to learn that while he was trying to invent new turns of phrase in his letters to describe his love for Anne, this interloper was spouting off adoration with alarming regularity.

Eventually, Gilbert could take it no more, and he pulled Cole aside to discuss the matter.

“I thought Roy knew that she was with someone?! Doesn’t anyone find it inappropriate?” Gilbert hissed.

“Roy is just like that, but he knows she’s completely in love with, well, someone. He’s never done anything untoward and he was a great comfort to her when she was upset over you.” That observation rankled more than anything else.

“It would seem awfully unfair of you to cut her off from a friend, wouldn’t it?” Cole continued. “It’s not like she almost married him for money.”

Gilbert accepted that low blow with a resigned sigh, remembering Diana’s earlier angry speech on the train and wondering just exactly what he would have to do to get back in Anne’s friends’ good graces. He supposed he would have to start by putting up with this dandy jackass and his pet names for Anne.

. . .

Soon after, Anne found Gilbert again, but then she heard the clock chime and her face fell. “I suppose I really should leave. I’ll be in such trouble if I miss curfew, _again_.”

“Why did you miss the first time?” Gilbert asked.

Anne glared at Roy.

“What? I thought that theatre was closer!” Roy exclaimed. “And anyway, I smoothed it all over, didn’t I?”

“You cannot charm my landlord into changing her curfew all the time, Roy.”

“Never say never, darling Anne.”

“Well,” Cole interjected, afraid Gilbert was close to his breaking point. “Are you ready to go, Anne?” Gilbert hated letting someone else escort her home, but as most of her housemates didn’t know he was in town (and certainly not to see Anne), he said nothing.

Roy surveyed the scene and decided he wasn’t quite done with Gilbert tonight, if the spineless fellow was going to let another man walk his lady home. (Gilbert did know perfectly well that Cole was no threat, but still.)

“Well if you two are off, then Blythe and I will simply have to continue the fun without you.” Gilbert eyed Roy in horror. “Cole, meet us at the usual place when you’re done? Blythe and I will have a great time talking about Toronto until you return.”

“Roy,” Anne said, “I don’t think Gilbert needs to know everything about your favorite spots in Toronto, deal? Unlike some people, his career rather depends on him not being expelled.”

“Not to worry. I’m sure we’ll find _plenty_ of good topics for discussion.” Roy clapped Gilbert’s shoulder and Gilbert found himself being led out into the night by the dandy jackass, as Cole took Anne’s arm and solicitously led her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will take any and all suggestions for pranks that Roy might pull on Gilbert at school! I have a few ideas but I feel like Roy is the type to play more than a few. :)


	6. Roy Invents a Rival...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy decides to test Gilbert a little...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your comments and kudos! I really love hearing your feedback!

Two hours later, Gilbert truly wondered if there was such a thing as divine punishment, for he had dreamed of spending this weekend kissing Anne in every secluded corner of the city and instead he was having the most excruciating evening of his life. Perhaps God truly had noted his, um, less than pure thoughts, when it came to Anne, and selected this weekend to bring down His wrath. Roy was thankfully prevented from spending the entire time describing every single detail about Anne that he found “inspiring and fascinating” by the arrival of his friends, but of course by then Gilbert was already so incensed that it really didn’t matter if Roy continued.

Cole eventually arrived and the evening improved somewhat. They talked easily of Avonlea and shared acquaintances. When Roy was distracted, Gilbert quietly enquired after Anne. Her letters were full of love and joy, but this evening left him worried that she was holding a few things back.

“She seems very happy, lately,” Cole replied carefully.

“And before?” Gilbert replied, equally carefully.

“I really doubt I have to tell you how she was, do I? How many months did she spend, crying over you?”

Gilbert raked a hand over his face. “I can only imagine, and I regret it completely. I am trying to make up for it now.”

“Listen, I’m not against you. I am just saying that her friends have long memories, and we haven’t quite forgotten yet that you made her cry, for whatever reason you did all that.”

“It wasn’t intentional. I truly thought she didn’t have feelings for me, or at least not like I did for her.”

Cole’s face softened slightly. “If that’s the case, then fine. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt this one time. She really has been beaming like sunshine, lately.”

Gilbert felt the knot that had formed in his stomach lessen slightly, though it returned with a vengeance when Roy’s friends departed and he deposited himself directly in front of Cole and Gilbert.

“Cole, I really must remember that I cannot invite Summers to that harvest festival. He’s sniffing after Anne something fierce and I doubt he’ll be dissuaded just because she already has someone.” Roy gave an exaggerated sigh. “Ah, it’s such a shame that she already has a beau. I would never let Summers have her, but I would adore introducing her to every eligible man in town. But then, I am rather wondering about her mystery beau’s sanity. He declared his feelings and then left town a minute later, can you imagine?!”

“Hard to believe, Roy,” Gilbert deadpanned. “Do all the men you know have the luxury of doing nothing but chasing after their sweethearts all day?”

“Well, it’s hard to imagine why a man would be so confident as to leave Anne to her own devices. She is so devoted, of course, but I’m beginning to wonder if the man has eyes, or does he not mind that half the men she meets would be happy to steal her away?” Gilbert glanced around the room just then, as though he had finally realized that the world was full of men and more than a few of them probably dreamed of being in his shoes.

“Well I suppose he must be an improvement over the last cad, whoever he is.” That got Gilbert’s attention. “She was head over heels for him – I seem to recall that she found him particularly handsome.” Gilbert knew he had no right, but he felt an irrational surge of jealousy.

“She was so enraptured of him that I really wonder if he kissed her. A good kiss would be hard to forget.” Cole kicked him under the table, but Roy hardly registered the pain as he watched Blythe turn several shades of purple. He hoped the fellow wasn’t about to pass out.

“Well we aren’t the kind of friends that would share that sort of thing, and I just realized that it is late and I have a long day tomorrow,” Gilbert replied, rising rapidly from his seat. “What do I owe you for the drink?”

“Oh, I could never ask a friend of our darling Anne’s to pay.”

Gilbert stared hard at him and choked out, “Then I’ll pay next time.” Even as he said the words, he regretted them. _What next time?! Why would I do that to myself?_ Then he remembered that this jackass had Anne’s ear and thought perhaps it had been the right thing to say. Forcing himself to say goodbye as solicitously as possible, he fairly flew out the door, Roy and Cole peering out to watch his departure.

Cole finally burst out with laughter. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

“I don’t know what Blythe was playing at before, but he needs some testing. A man with competition will do one of two things – redouble his efforts to make sure he never loses his lady, or give up. If he gives up, he never deserved her in the first place.”

“But there is no competition! Anne is ridiculously in love with him!”

“Which is why I invented competition in the form of…himself, but he doesn’t know that.” Roy tipped his chin in the direction of Gilbert’s swiftly disappearing form. “Where exactly do you think he’s going right now?”

Cole’s eyes widened as he registered that Gilbert had turned in the direction of Anne’s boarding house rather than his own lodgings.

Roy leaned in conspiratorially. “If he isn’t a complete idiot, Anne is about to get the kiss of her life.”


	7. ...and Gilbert Kisses Thoroughly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert won't let his "rival" outdo him.

Anne’s boarding house wasn’t far, and the benefit of having a girl who wrote as descriptively as Anne was that he could deduce exactly which window was hers from her letters. Just to be safe, he waited a while outside to see if she would appear in the window and was finally rewarded when he saw a faint flash of red hair glinting in the candlelight. Soon, the lights disappeared altogether, and the house was quiet.

Gilbert waited another hour to be sure, with plenty of thoughts about Anne’s dandy jackass friend to keep him company. Of course, he knew that Anne was beautiful, but he had to admit that he hadn’t given much thought to her popularity with her male classmates. It was ridiculous to be worried, but he couldn’t quite shake the unpleasant idea that there were probably more than a few men roaming this city right now, thinking that they had a chance with Anne and dreaming about it. The idea that one of those men out there might have properly kissed her bothered him even more.

 _You cannot ever ask her about that_ , he lectured himself. _Whatever you felt about Winifred, Anne knows you thought about proposing and you would be the biggest hypocrite in the world._

There wasn’t a day in his life that he didn’t regret all of it. There was nothing to be done for the past, though, so he tried to keep his thoughts trained on Anne and what exactly he was going to say if this plan worked.

He finally made his way carefully up the trellis on the side of the house. It was remarkably easy to climb onto the porch roof, and he began to wonder if Anne’s famously severe landlady was aware that she had practically attached a ladder to the side of the house. He thought with a chuckle that he was probably only one in a long line of suitors who had discovered this convenient fact.

Finally he found the right window and could faintly see the outline of her sleeping form on the bed. Diana was her only roommate and she wasn’t there, so Gilbert tapped nervously on the window, hoping against hope that he wasn’t making the second-stupidest decision of his life. He tapped again, slightly louder this time, and finally Anne stirred. There was just enough light outside to allow him to take in the sight of her as she neared the window, sleepy eyes growing wide at the sight of him, perfect face turned up in a smile, unbound hair dark and mysterious in the night.

“Are you crazy?” she whispered frantically when she opened the window. “My landlord would happily have you arrested!”

“I had to see you,” he started, worried that he really had made a mistake. “I’ve missed you so –“

His explanation was cut off as she wrapped her hand around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. “Get in here, quietly.” As he scrambled through the window, she shuffled over to the door. He tensed as he heard the click of the lock. They were alone, in the dark, Anne dressed only in her nightgown. He really should have thought this through.

She stepped closer tentatively, which did nothing to settle his nerves.

“We just – we couldn’t really…talk, before. Out there. Since we couldn’t tell everyone.” _Shut up, idiot._

She gave a small giggle and took another step closer. All he had to do was reach out and he could pull her into his arms.

“Did you really come here for talking?”

Now he backed up several paces, sputtering again. _Oh no, what does she think I’m expecting? Didn’t I have a speech prepared before I got here?_ But that was before, when she wasn’t right in front of him, smelling divine and fairly glowing in the light of a half-moon. Unfortunately, whatever low expectations she might have of his intentions weren’t entirely far from his desires. God, he had to fix this.

“Anne, I am not here with any…improper intentions,” he said slowly, holding out his hands as if calming a skittish horse.

She tried to cover her reaction so that the rest of the house wouldn’t hear her laughter. “Do you think I’d ever be worried that you would try to take advantage of me?”

He really hoped that his face was hidden in the shadows, because at this point he was certain that he was scarlet from neck to forehead.

She stepped forward again, but this time, his back was against the wall and he had nowhere to go. “I know you would never take advantage of an _unwilling_ girl,” she purred in a voice he'd never heard before.

The sound of her voice as she pointedly emphasized “unwilling” would haunt his dreams for years to come.

“But I also know,” she continued, nearly closing the gap between them, “that you are an excellent kisser. And so, I suppose I hoped that at least your intentions include a proper kiss.”

That did the trick. He pulled her against him in an instant, wrapping one arm around her waist and threading the other into her hair. She had thought of his kiss every day since their first, but still it didn’t compare to this one. He started off hot and hungry, too desperate in reaction to her words to bother with anything else. It was almost more affecting when he slowed down, as though he was ready to truly savor the experience - her feel, her taste, her touch. They were alone, with no need to hold back for propriety’s sake and no train to catch.

Gilbert continued to pull her closer, as though he could gather her up into his heart and never risk losing her again. He was a bit distracted by his hands, though, for he was constantly itching to feel every inch of her and trying very much to behave. He stroked her face and her silky hair with one hand and gripped her nightgown with the other, willing himself to stay put. His control slipped a touch more when Anne began touching his jaw gently with her fingers, before brushing her thumb over the outside of his ear. He growled slightly at the sensation and slowly touched his tongue along her bottom lip. She jumped a bit at the feel of him, and he pulled back slightly.

“Are you alright?”

She nodded. “It’s just all…a lot of new things. Good things! But still, new things.”

“We can stop,” he said softly. “It isn’t the last kiss I intend to ever give you. We don’t have to do every new thing right now.” _Again, stop speaking, man_.

She merely pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I love you.” At that, he bit his lip in the way she adored most and fairly burst with joy.

He touched his forehead to hers and placed both hands gently on either side of her waist. “I love you, too.” This seemed as good a time as any to come back to the real purpose of his visit. “I really did want to talk about some things, I promise.”

“Then what is it?”

“I couldn’t wait a second longer to ask you to court.”

Her face split into a heart-stopping smile, and she buried her face in his neck. They stood there for a long time, holding each other close. It was as amazing as the kiss, in its own way. He hated the reason for their first real hug, but he had never forgotten the overwhelming comfort of simply feeling her in his arms.

He continued whispering into her ear. “I really hope you knew that it was my intention the entire time. From my letter, I hoped you knew that my intentions are…serious. Very serious, but I think Marilla would kill me if I did too much about it right now.”

Anne laughed against his skin, and he tried not to react to much to the feeling of her breath dancing across his neck. “You’re right,” she murmured, “I can practically hear her lecture about me being too young.”

“Then someday, when Marilla won’t kill me. In the meantime, we’re officially courting.”

“My beau, Gilbert Blythe. I don’t think that even my great imagination ever conjured up those words before!”

Gilbert kissed her once more, softly, to seal the new step in their relationship. “Conjure them up whenever you like, my Anne.”

He turned to head back out the window, worried he had already risked discovery for too long. She leaned out as he departed to place one more loving kiss on his cheek.

“I shall have to consult my dictionary again to think of better words for what you are. ‘Excellent’ kisser just doesn’t do it justice.”

“It’s only because I’m kissing a girl who drives me wild,” he breathed, feeling a bit more emboldened now. “I might have to find some more words to describe what you do to me.”

He hardly gave a single thought to Roy Gardner for the rest of the night.


	8. Gilbert's Mysterious Toronto Tormentor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are strange happenings when Gilbert returns to school...

All too soon, their love-filled weekend was over and Gilbert returned to Toronto. They hadn’t spent as much time together as they would have liked, given that they could meet only in places where they were unlikely to run across their old schoolmates, but it hardly put a damper on their happiness in the least. They were still too giddy at the thought of truly being together, without any question about their feelings, to bother feeling too much upset at the inconvenience. Besides, Gilbert reasoned to himself, it was only temporary.

Gilbert thought, once or twice, about bringing up Winifred. _You should say something_ , he admonished himself _, you made her cry._ But then he would look into eyes, shining back at him with elation at the thought of being together, and he would freeze. How could he stand to make her cry again?

Instead, he started telling Anne about the first time he saw her. “It wasn’t fair – I never had any trouble getting the girls to talk to me and here the cute new girl acted like I didn’t exist!”

“Because I was forbidden! Ruby Gillis had dibs!”

Gilbert was suddenly struck with the realization that the female half of Avonlea school had lots of secrets they kept from their male counterparts, including, apparently, that the boys had already been claimed for a particular girl at the tender age of something like 13.

“In case you were wondering, she stopped caring about having dibs on you long ago.” He chuckled at that, though it did unpleasantly remind him that they were still surrounded by men who did not, in fact, know that he had “dibs” on Anne.

“So why does this, um, Roy, want to set you up so badly, anyway?” He tried to keep his voice light. “He seems to think that you should throw over your beau for, what was his name, Prince Arthur of Connaught?”

Anne howled with laughter at that. “It would seem that Roy fancies himself a connoisseur of unmarried royals. He is forever matchmaking his friends and he probably wishes he had the chance to take credit in my case. He will learn to live with the disappointment that I chose my love without him.”

Their letters resumed after the visit was over, and they each treasured the growing intimacy of discussing their present lives and a bit of their dreams for the future with each passing month. While Gilbert might have wished to spend all of his time with Anne, or at least thinking of Anne, it was in fact his studies and his part-time job that occupied most of his time.

There were also, starting a few weeks after his return to school, a number of strange happenings that distracted his attention somewhat. First, he found a pamphlet on his bed one afternoon that turned out to be a printed sermon on…marital fidelity? His roommate, Frank, had been with him at class all morning, and they were both equally puzzled. They asked the other fellows in the dorm, but no one betrayed a hint of evidence that they were in on the matter.

Loud, boisterous Davy Harrison swiped the paper from Gilbert’s hand and laughed heartily. “Do you have something to tell us of your marital status, Blythe?”

Blythe’s eyebrows furrowed, which all of his classmates took as a sign that he was deeply uncomfortable. They called it "the Blythe Brow."

Now another friend, Alec, piped up. “Well we’ve all seen those letters coming for him, with that very dainty handwriting. What is his sweetheart's name again, Anne?” Gilbert was surrounded, hands clapping his back and chuckles ringing in his ears. “Tell us, Frank, is Gilbert over in your room wooing Anne by letter when he’s supposed to be studying?”

Frank knew perfectly well that he was, but he was hardly one to betray his friend. “Perhaps someone is just very interested in ensuring that Gilbert has a solid religious education.” That made Davy Harrison laugh even harder.

“Anne Blythe, you have to admit it does sound nice.” The teasing continued, but Gilbert was now lost in happy thoughts. It was the first time anyone had said that name out loud to him, though he had dared to think of it himself a time or two. He might have wished it wasn’t Davy Harrison saying it, but he couldn’t deny that the sound of it gave him a thrill.

. . .

Next came a slim booklet on courtship, with a page turned down (that page was in fact the “declaring your feelings” section, but Gilbert hadn’t bothered to read these strange…gifts? What was happening?).

A few days after that, he was jerked awake in the middle of the night by an ear-splitting sound, only to discover that somehow an alarm clock had been hidden under his bed. That horrible experience repeated itself three more times over the coming months. Gilbert took to hunting for new unpleasant surprises around his dorm room every night before bed, but his tormentor was apparently very creative with hiding places.

He and his roommate were mystified. Seemingly no one in the dorm building had any idea who was doing this or why. They even had the locks changed on their door, to no avail. The next day, he found an advertisement on the bed with Christmas gift ideas for a man’s sweetheart.

One morning, when an alarm clock somehow attached to the bottom of the wardrobe went off at 5:00, his roommate flung himself back onto the bed in despair. “Blythe, we haven’t even been here long! What did you do to make an enemy like this?!”

He also had the strange sense that on a few occasions, he would meet upperclassmen who seemed to know exactly who he was, for no logical reason. (Of course, the real answer was that Gilbert had the terrible misfortune to transport himself to a place where Roy’s presence in society still loomed large. It took only a few well-placed letters to some old friends to ensure that Gilbert would be subjected to Roy’s carefully selected pranks. Roy actually hoped to provide some useful advice, or at least threats of the wrath from On High, with the reading material, so he reasoned that Gilbert could accept the other minor inconveniences in exchange. Roy’s old chums were also instructed to inform Roy immediately if they heard that Gilbert so much as smiled at another woman, and then to beat him into oblivion. None of them had much idea whatsoever why this effort was necessary, but this was Roy and he would do the same for them, after all.)


	9. Home for Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert and Anne are thrilled to be able to see each other again, but everything isn't perfect...

Roy tried everything over the coming weeks to learn whether his pranks were having any effect, but so far it seems that Gilbert’s letters were unchanged – affectionate, frequent, and lacking any mention of uncomfortable topics.

On a few occasions, he tried to make a few subtle suggestions to Anne. “Has this fellow ever asked you about any earlier paramours? It is so fun to make them jealous sometimes.”

“No, of course not. There aren’t any so it would have been a short conversation,” she chuckled.

“Then perhaps I should tell him about that man who tried to bring flowers to the boarding house?” Anne merely rolled her eyes at that question. At first, she merely told any inquiring gentlemen that she wasn’t interested in any relationship at the moment, but as the months wore on and she had no obvious suitor, they had started getting bolder. She thought it might be about time to try something more direct.

Cole pulled Roy aside a while later. “It seems like he didn’t ask her about this other love.”

“Of course he didn’t. Blythe is in this mess because he doesn’t ask questions when he should. So let him stew about it instead. Maybe he’ll learn someday.”

What Roy didn’t know was that Gilbert had taken a sudden interest in writing to all of his old friends, hoping he could find a way to subtly ask after the well-being of the Avonlea ladies without making it obvious that he was specifically interested in learning who might be chasing after Anne. So far, only Charlie and Moody had responded, and they were decidedly unhelpful. Charlie was too put out with Anne to bother visiting the boarding house, and Moody spent his entire letter speaking of Ruby Gillis’ suitors in the most unflattering terms. He was desperate enough to consider asking Diana, but he could be fairly certain that she would tell Anne.

Roy also didn’t know that his own name had started appearing in her letters, much to Gilbert’s chagrin. She talked only of light topics and shared a few of Roy’s stories of matchmaking and lovers he had chased, though only in relatively chaste terms (she wasn’t entirely ready to share all of Roy’s scandalous stories, afraid Gilbert would think she was getting very improper ideas). Gilbert pictured Roy telling these stories to Anne, all the while using a damned thesaurus to describe the ways he loved everything about her personality and body, and never could find them particularly amusing.

. . .

Christmas break approached, but Gilbert sadly learned that he would not be able to spend all of his free time in Avonlea. His employer expected him to return before the new semester began, and he was not in a position to refuse just now. As it stood, he would have only two weeks at home to enjoy before he had to face another long trip back to Toronto.

He hoped they would announce their courtship over Christmas, but that dream was dashed quickly on the second day he had arrived. He was practically floating on a cloud, thrilled that Marilla and Matthew had happily given their approval the day before. It didn’t even matter that Bash had given him a scarf as a gift, carefully knitting “I WAS RIGHT” down the center. He was at the general store, picking up a few provisions, when he ran into some neighbors.

“We thought for certain that we wouldn’t see you for years!” Mr. Bell began. “I was so shocked to learn that you would give up an opportunity to study at the Sorbonne!”

He mumbled an excuse about deciding that his opportunities were better elsewhere, and that the young lady had other options, but already his mind was reeling. By the next day, when his old classmates accosted him and demanded information about apparently the most interesting gossip in Avonlea, his heart sank.

“Did you throw her over for some other girl?” That was Charlie’s delightfully insensitive question.

“Or did she throw you over for some other man? Was there a fight?” Moody added.

Gilbert despaired to think that Anne might hear all of this nonsense, but he also wanted her to have no part in this story. He resolved to keep his courtship quiet a while longer, and to spend the entire break finding ways to shut down this relentless gossip without insulting Winifred or implicating Anne. He finally settled on an excuse about wanting to achieve success on his own rather than relying on her family. It didn’t entirely explain why he had broken off the courtship itself, but it was something, and most people seemed to accept it.

. . .

Anne reluctantly agreed to his suggestion that they wait until summer to make a public announcement, though he said only that then they would have three months to prove their relationship to others, instead of merely a few days. They discussed the matter in hushed whispers during a gathering with both of their families, so there wasn’t an opportunity to say much. Since Marilla and Matthew now knew everything and they had to be careful about their behavior around others, there was a serious lack of time alone that began to wear on them both. They had stolen kisses at various points along the way, but never enough to satisfy their true desires.

Anne was feeling a bit bolder this time, having discussed some important questions about reproduction and the like with a reliable source. Roy had discreetly asked one day whether she felt comfortable with her beau’s advances, being most concerned about any unwelcome behavior. She hastily promised him that her beau had never given any cause for concern on that score, but also that she remained a bit unsure about the realities of intimacy.

“As you can imagine, I don’t want to do anything that should remain within the confines of marriage,” she added nervously. Roy had to smile at that. He certainly knew, more’s the pity.

“But,” she continued, “I’d like to know – more, about what’s happening. So that I’m not surprised.”

He pointed her in the direction of an old friend. Persephone was safely married off by now, so her advice would seem more…respectable, but her experience was certainly beyond that of the typical Avonlea matron. Persephone was also not one to reveal that a good bit of that experience occurred while she was in Roy’s company. It was perhaps the most educational two hours Anne spent in her entire life, and she left feeling significantly more comfortable with addressing the butterflies she felt whenever she was in Gilbert’s presence.

Roy did not ask about the result of this conversation. He didn’t want Anne to end up unhappy with this part of her marriage, but he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy all the same.

. . .

After two lovely weeks spent together whenever they could, it was nearly time for Gilbert to return and they had still found very little time to be truly alone. Anne finally resolved to do the thing she had hoped to avoid – she lied. After telling Marilla that she was going to Diana’s, she stopped by Diana’s house only for a moment, to ask her to pretend that they were taking a walk together before she ran to see Gilbert.

Diana merely smiled knowingly and said, “Someday, you’re going to pay me back.”

After solemnly vowing that she would indeed help Diana run off with suitors as much as she needed, she went in search of Gilbert. The search was much easier when she saw him heading toward the barn, and when she entered, Bash and Elijah were mercifully nowhere to be found.

He started at the sight of her. It seemed as though he had a face reserved only for her, when she was doing something he didn’t quite understand. It was so achingly adorable. “Anne?” he asked. “Were we supposed to be meeting this afternoon?”

She didn’t bother answering and pulled him in for a kiss. He wasn’t about to stop her, and she wasn’t about to let him talk. It seemed he was forever trying to talk when he should have been kissing her.

As the kiss deepened and he pulled her close, she unbuttoned her coat first, then his. She took off her gloves as fast as she could, not taking her lips off his. She carefully slipped one arm into his coat, running her hand along his stomach and around to his back. He sucked in a deep breath at the feel of her warm fingers sliding over his shirt, and pulled his head back.

“You can touch me,” she murmured softly. He dropped his head, unsure of what to say or do. “I mean, I don’t want you to go lifting up my skirts without asking or anything but –“

At that suggestion, Gilbert backed up, hands raised in surrender. She was beginning to understand why he didn’t confess to her sooner, considering that everything she did made him confused or nervous.

“That has never been my plan!” She fairly jumped at his voice, he sounded so alarmed.

“What has you so afraid, Gilbert?” She placed her palms on either side of his face, hoping the touch would smooth his furrowed brow.

“I said before, in Charlottetown, I don’t want you to misunderstand my intentions.”

“As I recall, I told you that I hoped your intentions included kissing,” she replied, unable to keep the teasing from her voice. “But, when you kiss me, I can tell you’re nervous sometimes.” In fact, sometimes he would start clenching his hand against her back without realizing it, in an effort not to move. She was more worried at this point that their trysts would be obvious because her dresses were always a bit wrinkled in one spot.

Now he was cursing himself for being so obvious. He had tried to do everything in his power not to do anything that would alarm her, but apparently he had only highlighted his own discomfort.

She tried again, seeing that now his nerves were getting worse. “I just mean – I trust you. If I don’t like something I know you’ll stop. Or, you can ask if you’re worried about it. You know me well enough to know that I’ll say no if I don’t want to.” He still wasn’t quite looking at her, but she could see that he wasn’t clenching his jaw anymore, at least. She tried one more time, going the route that Persephone suggested. “But, do you really only want to do what we’re doing right now?”

His eyes had darkened and her stomach gave a queer little flip. “Do you really want to know?”

“I’m here, asking, aren’t I?” She hoped she was hiding the impatience from her voice but really, they didn’t have much time and now he was going in circles.

Gilbert had to chuckle a bit at her flash of temper. This was his Anne, after all. Of course she wouldn’t be scared out of this conversation. She was pretty even when she was annoyed, he thought, biting his lip. It was truly unfair.

“Then no,” he answered, voice going deep and velvety. “When you’re close, I can’t help but think plenty of improper thoughts.” He had taken off his own gloves before sliding his hands inside her coat. Even through her corset, she could feel his warmth. “For example,” he whispered in her ear, “I love it when my hands are on you.” He was stroking his fingers along her back now, never taking his eyes from hers. Her breath hitched a bit. “And I like it when you make those sounds.”

Now it was her turn to feel nervous. What he was doing felt delicious, but she hadn’t quite expected him to give in so easily. Just what would he do if they went down this path? She thought of some of the things Persephone told her and her heart nearly pounded out of her chest.

_Calm down, you ninnyhammer_ , she thought. _You’re getting ahead of yourself, no matter what you might try someday._

She cleared her throat and kissed him, just once. “What if…we try one thing you want to do?”

He smiled mischievously. “All I want right now is to kiss you.”

He crushed his lips to hers, hands still roaming over her back, her waist, her hips. She returned her hand to his chest, tangling the other in his hair. He groaned a bit at the feel of her, and tentatively touched her tongue to his when he had the opportunity. She jumped slightly again, but this time she smiled a bit against his mouth and gripped his shirt. She carefully tried the same, gently running her tongue along his lip as he had done to her in her room.

She felt his restraint slip away as he lost himself in her, and the last of her nerves disappeared as well. They both wanted to be close like this, and they were safe with each other as they explored.

When they finally stopped, Gilbert pulled her against him, hands still resting on the wool of her dress. He never did give up touching her unless he was afraid that someone else would catch him. “You’re sure you don’t regret that your beau is so forward?”

She wisely didn’t say the first thing that came to mind, and merely nuzzled against him. “We are not exactly traditional people, now are we?”


	10. Anne's Friends Still Have Opinions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is getting a bit impatient with Gilbert and Anne, who have not entirely learned their lesson about communication.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will say, I feel like Gilbert and Anne failing to talk about this one issue is pretty typical in my experience (feel free to disagree!). Lots of great couples have an issue they avoid, for reasons that seem logical. It never feels like the right time, so it isn't resolved as it should be. I've had to learn to speak up myself, so I sympathize!

The end of Gilbert’s Christmas holiday was significantly more unpleasant than the start. He reluctantly left Anne at her house, worried that allowing her to accompany him to the Bright River train station would raise suspicions. It had been incredibly comforting to both of them to spend time together with their families over the holidays. Given how close they all were, the courtship seemed to flourish naturally from it and they both felt like they were exactly where they belonged.

Unfortunately, Gilbert realized that having a sweetheart also meant appeasing her (especially if your sweetheart was Anne Shirley-Cuthbert, who had been known to raise a ruckus when she was displeased). So when an invitation came to stay with Aunt Jo and Cole overnight on his way back, to ease the logistical challenges of catching an early train to Toronto, he felt he couldn’t refuse.

As he expected, both Cole and Roy were waiting for him when he arrived. “Blythe, my boy!” Roy began, clapping him on the back, “You look as if school is taking a toll on you! I suppose most people don’t blossom when they study so much. Only Anne looks brighter and more gorgeous after burying her nose in a book.”

Gilbert truly had to admire his efficiency. Who but Roy could manage three separate annoying utterances in such a short span of time?

Roy and Cole once again dragged him out for a night on the town. “I couldn’t possibly send off Anne’s friend without showing him a good time,” Roy explained smoothly. In truth, Roy couldn’t help but picture Gilbert’s torture at spending many hours on the train to Toronto after one too many drinks, having had the experience himself a time or two.

Roy’s stories about Anne started early and never ceased. Gilbert did begin to lose track of his beers, as he hid his face behind the glass to cover up his glowering. It failed, of course, because all of Gilbert’s glowering was in fact in his eyebrows. Gilbert began to wonder if he could find a way to let Anne visit him, or perhaps they could stay in Charlottetown for a time. It was incredibly annoying to discover that Roy and Cole took Anne and Diana on any number of excursions that would have been lovely dates, had Gilbert the time or opportunity to try them. Would this man ever stop outdoing him?

“I do worry that I must keep Anne away from the local theatre. The cast members are marvelous people, you see, but they are such libertines and they try to flirt with Anne so much! She has to beat them away with my quizzing glass!”

“Roy, I think you’re forgetting to mention just how many of those cast members were flirting with _you_ ,” Cole wisely pointed out. “They’re rather…free with their affections.”

“Well she’s taken now to telling them that she already has someone, for otherwise she would have an even worse time of it. But just why won’t this fellow of hers announce things publicly? I truly think the man must be insane. The poor girl literally has to turn them away at the door of the boarding house! Some of them bearing flowers! And yet all she can say is that she is interested in another man, as though that will be enough to dissuade them from trying.”

It was obvious that Gilbert had not been informed of flower-bearing suitors, and he finished off this glass of beer in a single gulp. Roy imagined the particularly bumpy stretch of tracks through Quebec that awaited Gilbert tomorrow and gleefully shoved a fresh mug in his direction.

“At least he didn’t end things as badly as the last one. She was so much in love with him, telling me that they had danced together and it was like something out of a romantic novel. Then what does he do – he shows up at their local fair with another woman and breaks her heart! He didn’t even think to warn her in advance, or to wonder if it would bother her. Perhaps he had a right to love someone else, though I think he must be an idiot not to love Anne above all others, but shouldn’t he have noticed something of her feelings?”

Whatever irritation Gilbert had displayed had disappeared in favor of upset and worry. He cleared his throat and said, “Perhaps he was too unsure of her regard to believe she felt the same. He’s probably not the first man to do something stupid when he’s in love, is he?”

Cole was sitting beside Gilbert and didn’t dare to look at him. Roy was watching him very closely, however, and continued, “That is probably true, but not all stupid things are the same. Some of them you do not dare to repeat, or you risk everything.”

Gilbert took in Roy’s surprisingly sound advice and resolved to speak to Anne about their misunderstandings when he saw her next. After the time that had passed, it didn’t seem appropriate to discuss by letter.

**. . .**

Only a week after they all returned home from Christmas, a letter came from Gilbert, addressed to Diana. This was a part of their ruse to conceal the courtship, for Gilbert’s letters to Anne were so frequent that their housemates would ask far too many questions if they were all addressed to her. Diana and Anne managed to hide many of them before the other girls even saw the name on the envelope, or they would have even more questions.

“A letter from Gilbert, so soon after the holiday?” Josie inquired. “Is there something you need to tell us, Diana?”

Anne sat nearby, trying to look uninterested.

“Don’t be silly Josie. Gilbert writes to lots of people. He writes to Anne, too, you know.”

“Besides,” Tilly added, “he’s barely been home since last summer and back then he was smitten with that Charlottetown girl.”

“We don’t know if he was smitten, Tilly,” Diana said through gritted teeth, watching Anne carefully as her face fell.

“It’s hard to imagine he wasn’t,” Josie said matter-of-factly. “You all saw her. Pretty, poised, and rich. Isn’t that what every man wants?”

Anne had become very interested in the book in her hands, awkwardly holding it in front of her face.

“Well for some reason, she wasn’t what he wanted,” Diana continued.

“Maybe she ended it!” Tillie offered. “I heard that he didn’t want to move to Paris, but who knows? If that’s the case, Diana, be sure not to let him sway you. Just imagine how it would feel, knowing you were a second choice to her.”

Diana finally convinced the girls to cease their speculating and move on, as it appeared Gilbert had done the same. That night, Diana held Anne as she cried. She had half a mind to write Gilbert a scathing letter, but Anne begged her to say nothing.

“It’s my fault that I didn’t say anything of my feelings sooner,” Anne reasoned. Diana wasn’t feeling quite so ready to forgive, but with Anne so upset she didn’t want to make things worse while Gilbert was so far away.

. . .

Another mysterious gift appeared in Gilbert’s room shortly after Christmas. This one was an entire book, entitled The Young Husband’s Book. It was oddly filled with at least a dozen bookmarks and a section of the book seemed to have entirely different pages than the rest. He opened the cover tentatively, worried that it might in fact simply combust or cover him with ink. Really, this was all becoming ridiculous.

There was a note inside, though he did not recognize the handwriting.

_It would seem you are in grave need of advice._

Come again?! He wasn’t married (yet) and Anne had surprisingly few complaints about him, as far as he could tell.

_You can skip the nonsense about docile and delicate women; you haven’t a prayer that your lady will ever fit that description. You should also give up any hope that obedience will have a part in your marital vows._

Gilbert laughed in spite of himself. His bizarre tormentor wasn’t wrong, after all.

_I have suggested a few passages that may be particularly useful._

Gilbert flipped nervously to the first bookmark, and found a passage underlined. His bizarre tormentor sure was thorough.

“He should always be ready to sacrifice his present personal pleasure to the future well-being of those who have the first and best claim to his regard.” Gilbert had no idea why it would be necessary to point out this rather obvious notion, but he supposed it wasn’t wrong.

The next bookmark pointed to a chapter on marital communication. _Simply read the entire thing_ , a note said at the top of the page _, I beg of you_. At that, Gilbert’s eyebrows took on a look of unending confusion. He then flipped to the pages that appeared to have been cut somewhat unevenly. It so happened to be a chapter titled “Intimacy and Procreation.”

The start of this chapter had another note. _I could not begin to let a man take this advice unless he enjoys boring his wife to tears. You can thank me later._ It appeared that someone had torn the pages of the real chapter out of the book and inserted instead some very explicit pages on female pleasure from the kind of publication that would cause polite society to shriek with horror at the sight of it. Gilbert knew that these kinds of magazines were being passed among his friends in the dorm, but this was somehow even more shocking than those he had seen.

He swiftly hid this latest unwelcome offering, having no desire to let Frank or any of his other friends give their opinions on his husbandly duties. The book stayed, forgotten under his mattress, as he threw himself into more pleasant books, like Advanced Mathematics.

. . .

By spring, Roy was nearly beside himself. It seemed that none of his efforts to coax Blythe into explaining his actions had worked. He consulted with Cole and Diana to see if they had learned anything helpful, but they were equally vexed.

“Poor Anne, she still has to hear about Winifred even now! She was so upset at the mere mention of it, but she insisted it was fine and what mattered is the outcome.”

“In some ways that’s good,” Cole said, “but doesn’t she want to know _something_ about why it happened? Otherwise, it’s just lingering out there.”

“Because really, why did he court someone else rather than at least trying to confess?!” Roy exclaimed.

“It’s so hard to know with him. From where I stood, he just always seemed not to care about much of what was going on at school, except for the classwork or anything about Anne. I guess she knows it would have been a marriage of convenience, but she knows so little else about the courtship. I think she’s a bit afraid of ruining things by bringing it up,” Diana added.

“And now it’s gone on for so long…” Roy interjected. They all nodded their agreement and lapsed into frustrated silence.

Anne had excitedly shared with Roy that Gilbert's letters now featured far more detailed musings about the ways that Gilbert found her attractive and wonderful, and she shared with him every one of her articles and writings. He excitedly encouraged her budding literary career and mentioned a few employment opportunities she might consider in the future in the town where he lived, which made her particularly blush. There were also flowers coming to the boarding house on occasion, from a not-so-secret-to-Anne secret admirer.

 _Not much creativity here, but I suppose he’s a man of science and not art_ , Roy mused. Still, Roy had not been able to discern a single sign that either of them had discussed the debacle that was the lead-up to their courtship, or what might happen when they went public. He could see the pain on her face when he even remotely brought up the subject, so he avoided being direct. What could he say, anyway? He didn’t know the reason for all this confusion, so he was hardly in a position to offer comfort that the real answer would be helpful to know.

He had never encountered a suitor so frustrating. His love for Anne was so painfully obvious that he practically wore it on his jacket, and yet, how could Roy truly settle the fear in his heart until he was sure that he wasn’t leaving his darling Anne with a man who could callously hurt her and then say nothing? He had no idea how he would ever survive the heartbreak if he had to watch the girl he loved give over her life to a man like that.

There was nothing else to be done for it. He resolved to do his least favorite thing, and simply give this nackle-ass a serious piece of his mind when he saw him next. A letter would never do it justice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how the show would have handled the fallout from the not-engagement if we had a Season 4, but the finale left me very worried that somehow the writers thought the problem was solved because they both admitted their love, despite the fact that there were some serious mistakes and problematic behavior that got them to that dramatic ending.
> 
> So yes, I am sort of having a fight with the writers here, because I think these two adorable kids have some more learning to do before they can resolve Season 3. :)


	11. Roy Visits Avonlea and Gilbert Reluctantly Hosts Him

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy is more than happy to spend a week annoying Gilbert.

Finally, the summer came. Anne had finished her time at Queen’s, winning the Avery scholarship to finish out her college education at Redmond College in Kingsport. She had only just learned of the prize a few days earlier, so she opted to tell Gilbert the news in person when he returned home. Between their full courseloads and Gilbert’s job, she hadn’t seen him since Christmas. Her heart sank when she received his letter informing her that he could not come back in the spring, but she tried to make the best of it. She also reminded herself that it would be far easier to see him at the end of the school year, when they had agreed to make their courtship public.

Her heart was full to bursting by the time Gilbert returned to Avonlea. Cole and Roy had accompanied her home for a short visit. Roy had planted the idea in her head, claiming a need to see the beauty of her beloved Green Gables. That wasn’t the real reason, but he hoped Anne would never learn otherwise.

She wrote to Gilbert, full of excited plans for tours of her favorite haunts and long picnics. _And then they will leave after a week and we can take some longer picnics alone…_ , she continued. Gilbert was grateful that he learned of this visit by post, so that he could scowl and curse at the thought of spending a week in Roy’s company. He wondered if he could convince the dandy jackass to cease his constant yammering about Anne long enough to allow Gilbert to announce the courtship without confusing the good folks of Avonlea into wondering if Anne had two beaux.

He then spent a horrible day picturing Roy at Green Gables, mere feet from Anne’s room for nights on end. He knew he was being ridiculous even as he wrote the words, but before he knew it he had written to Bash to suggest that these two, er, friends, should stay at the Blythe farm for a visit. Perhaps Hazel could stay at Green Gables and Gilbert could sleep on the floor? Bash’s response was entirely puzzled but he agreed.

Anne gave up the pretense and told Roy the truth about Gilbert’s identity when she received Gilbert’s letter about the visit. Roy could hardly contain his laughter when he learned of his invitation. “Oh, so that the men can bond, is it?” Cole, in fact, could not contain himself a moment longer, and pretended to have an urgent need to step away before he lost control entirely. Roy had four glorious weeks to imagine all kinds of ways to drive Gilbert insane in his own house. It was perhaps the greatest early birthday present he had ever received.

Anne, Roy, and Cole arrived in Avonlea two days before Gilbert, giving Roy ample time to befriend Bash. He knew from the first that this man was, as Anne would say, a kindred spirit, and he could hardly believe his good fortune upon discovering that Gilbert actually lived with a man who loved mocking Gilbert nearly as much as Roy himself.

The three of them collected Gilbert from the Bright River station, Anne’s eyes shining with affection as he stepped onto the platform. It took everything in his power not to sweep Anne up into his arms, but since they would be courting officially now, he tried to take pains not to overstep his bounds in public. He begrudgingly shook hands with Roy and Cole before Anne took his arm. "So you were the mystery beau all along?" Roy whispered to him theatrically. "What a surprise - I suppose you do have quite a bit of confidence, after all, to endure the wait while she was chased by the gentlemen of Queens."

Gilbert, wisely, said nothing and merely nodded. 

“Time to go home and start a new chapter, don’t you think?” Anne asked, beaming. It sounded perfect to him.

. . .

They stopped by Green Gables first, so that Gilbert could properly greet Matthew and Marilla and take afternoon tea. He was every inch the gracious suitor, and even Marilla could not help but feel a flutter at the romance of it all. She and Hazel exchanged knowing, amused glances at the sight of the two of them taking new tentative steps in their relationship.

Finally, it was time to take Gilbert and his guests back to the Blythe farm. Gilbert was considerably less thrilled than he had been a few hours ago, realizing that he would spend many hours in Roy’s company without Anne to improve the situation. Bash was waiting for him at home, ready with a brotherly embrace. He nodded solicitously to Anne. “Wonderful to see you as always, future missus Blythe.” Gilbert’s eyes nearly fell out of his head as he glared. Anne merely smiled warmly at Bash and waved before turning to pick up a squealing Delly.

“Just what in heaven’s name do you think that you are doing?!” Gilbert whispered furiously, hoping against hope that Roy and Cole hadn’t overheard. Roy would spend the entire evening talking about engagements if given the slightest provocation.

“She’s family – she needed a good nickname,” Bash replied without a hint of regret.

“And just when did you start using this nickname?!”

“Oh I don’t know, the second I had the chance after you finally admitted your feelings to her? I’ve been holding back on it for years, just for your benefit.” Gilbert rolled his eyes, resigned to Bash’s relentless teasing.

“Have you been running all over the place saying this?!”

“Of course not, I only say it to her, and it makes her laugh so you can’t complain, now can you?” He nodded at Anne, who was following Delly, toddling on her tiptoes, into the next room. “Don’t you want to follow your future wife?”

“Would you let me ask her properly, in the right time, before you do that?”

“No, because you take too long.”

After a precious hour spent playing with Delly and sitting arm in arm on the porch, Anne noticed the weariness on his face and stood. “Come with me,” she said, holding out her hand. He followed her inside, where she sought Bash. “Please, feed him some supper and make him go to bed. Look at him – he’s dead on his feet!”

It was true. The weeks of endless schoolwork and the long train ride were taking their toll, and Gilbert was practically swaying with exhaustion. Bash agreed with an amused smile, and Anne departed with a gentle kiss to Gilbert’s cheek. Roy supposed his little chat with Gilbert would have to wait another day.

“It should have occurred to me that Anne would fuss over you all the time, now. This is going to be painful to watch,” Bash sighed. Roy and Cole, who had both watched this scene with similarly gleeful grins, nodded their concurrence.


	12. Roy (Almost Literally) Drags Gilbert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy is still full of opinions about Gilbert, but this time he's serious.

The following day, Gilbert’s exhaustion was even more apparent when he refused to wake, despite Roy’s very best efforts.

“Leave him alone, Roy, he looks like he hasn’t slept in days,” Cole said from the door.

“I’ll be generous and assume he’s dreaming of Anne. I can’t understand what would otherwise cause a man to spend time away from his sweetheart in favor of sleeping.”

“It might be best that she doesn’t see him until he looks better than…this,” Cole added. Roy couldn’t argue with that. They headed over to Green Gables without him.

Rachel Lynde arrived before Gilbert, being unable to wait any longer to learn the identity of the stranger she saw riding with Anne, Cole, and Gilbert the previous day. It was fortunate for her that the stranger was already at Green Gables, ready to charm even judgmental Mrs. Lynde. Roy wisely mentioned almost at the first that they were staying with Gilbert, suspicious that Mrs. Lynde was exactly the type to have opinions about overly close friendships with members of the opposite sex.

“That is very kind of Gilbert and Sebastian, I suppose, to put up your schoolmate during his visit.”

“Well, Gilbert doesn’t mind helping me. In fact,” Anne smiled shyly down at the ground, unable to contain herself any longer, “I suppose it is natural for him to help me, since we have decided to court.”

Rachel cleared her throat at that information, which wasn’t the reaction Anne was expecting. “Well, I suppose that is fortunate. I can imagine he would like to have a girl with some…intellect.” Rachel fixed Anne with a knowing stare. “But you might consider coming back here and learning to be a _proper_ homemaker after all, if that is the case.”

Anne’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Gilbert is a prize for _you_ to catch, that is certain.” Roy nearly stood and interrupted at that moment, but he stayed silent, afraid that any interference would make things worse for Anne. “You have acquitted yourself well, it would seem, taking first place with him on the Queen’s exam and doing so well at college. But Gilbert is going to be a respectable doctor, and he’ll need a wife who will uphold his reputation.” Rachel’s tone left no doubt that she was not certain Anne was capable of doing so. “I don’t say this to be cruel, Anne, but you know how highly everyone thinks of Gilbert. You wouldn’t want them pitying him forever for choosing you instead of someone like that pretty Charlottetown girl, and _your_ reputation won’t survive a failed courtship.”

Anne’s face went white, and for a second no one dared to move or breathe, except Rachel, who finished her harsh observation with a satisfied nod.

Anne raced out the door, Roy and Cole trailing behind her, while Marilla stayed behind to give Rachel a serious piece of her mind. Gilbert, finally arriving, saw her retreating figure in the distance and tried to call to her, but only Cole and Roy turned around. After a pause, Roy waved Cole away and Cole continued following Anne. Roy came sprinting at Gilbert, and in an instant, Gilbert found himself slammed to the ground, gasping for air.

Roy grabbed his lapels before he even had a chance to catch his breath. “I hate how stupid you are sometimes! Does it ever occur to you to think about something other than how much you like Anne and your books?!”

Roy threw him off and Gilbert was left blinking the stars out of his eyes.

“What is going on?” Gilbert was so stunned he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“To the surprise of absolutely no one with half a brain, already the first person that Anne told of your courtship decided to inform Anne that she doesn’t measure up to this society’s ideal, compared to their _perfect hometown hero Gilbert_ ,” Roy spat out. “And as also completely expected, Mrs. Lynde managed to imply that you would have been better off with whatever-her-name-is, because they were _always going to do that_ unless you do something!”

Gilbert’s eyes widened with horror. “I have to get to Anne!” He scrambled up, but Roy yanked him back.

“You’re not going anywhere unless you have a plan to fix this! Honestly, just what the hell is wrong with you?!” Gilbert finally stared hard into Roy’s furious face, and panic began to settle in his stomach. If Roy was this angry, just what must Anne be thinking of him right now?

“Come on, we need to get out of view of the house,” Roy said, fairly dragging Gilbert along with him. When they finally moved behind the barn, Roy turned to him abruptly.

“Good God, man! What do I have to do to get you to speak up like you should?! The books I sent you quite literally bookmarked and annotated the relevant points! Did you think someone did all that work for fun?!”

Gilbert had no idea how he was supposed to respond.

“I tried subtle but apparently you are only smart when it comes to school, so I’ll try a different way. You nearly lost Anne because you are too stupid and oblivious to nearly everything that isn’t about you, and you are still making Anne suffer because of it. Did you ever wonder what her life was like before she came to Green Gables?”

Gilbert was fairly confused about this turn in the conversation but also very much aware that Roy would probably beat him senseless if he said anything remotely wrong, so he opted to say very little. “She doesn’t like to talk about it much.”

“Oh yes, and you don't talk about anything uncomfortable, it seems, unless you are completely backed into a corner, which is why we are still having this conversation when you should have explained yourself to Anne a year ago, or three years ago, in fact. So maybe you should have bothered to think about it anyway, even if she doesn’t like to talk about it.”

Roy was pacing at this point, trying to contain his frustration. “Have you ever met someone else who had to grow up like Anne?”

“No,” Gilbert admitted quietly.

“Well I have. Some of my friends are forever bringing them to parties after they visit, you know, brothels.” Gilbert stared at him in shock. “You think life for her was happy, ever? No one bothered to say a single kind word or to do a single good deed for her. Did you ever consider what might have happened to her if she hadn’t come to Green Gables? If I told you some of the stories I’ve heard, you would never sleep again a night in your life. As it stands, it is a miracle that she was only strapped within an inch of her life by a drunkard, and that none of the men in the houses she was forced to live in ever took _particular interest in her_. Although, would she tell you if they had?”

Roy worried that perhaps he had gone a bit far with that unfortunately not-uncommon scenario, since Gilbert momentarily looked as if he would faint and then retched into the grass. Eventually he slid down the wall of the barn, head in his hands.

“And then she comes here, where at least she has Marilla and Matthew. But everyone at school still judged her, didn’t they? How many times did they call her an ugly orphan? Josie Pye called her ‘trash’ just last year!”

“I tried to defend her,” Gilbert said weakly.

“Yes, but you didn’t seem to think about what it did to her, hearing those things all the time. You might be an orphan too, but I've heard enough about you to know it isn’t nearly the same. You grew up with a parent who loved you. You are a man, who had a father they knew, and you grew up here. You are Avonlea’s Golden Boy, and she was the ugly orphan. Is it any wonder that she ran away from her feelings? As it was, she was prepared to confess to you the day of that fair, and then you show up with a woman who is everything she believes she is not.”

By now, tears were silently streaming down Gilbert’s cheeks, but Roy soldiered on, determined to make his point. “I have seen women nearly throw themselves from bridges for less. I am glad she has you, and others, to help her believe in herself now, but don’t you ever forget that she believed in herself at the moment it would have been easiest for her to give up, and for that she is incredible.”

“I know she’s incredible,” Gilbert replied, his voice thick with emotion.

“I understand that, but you are the one who had the easier time of it here. You have lived here all your life and you can do no wrong in society’s eyes. What would it have cost you to try confessing to her? Would it have been so terrible to fail at something for once in your life? Why did you even bother with whatever-her-name-is in the first place?”

Roy sighed and took a minute to collect himself. Blythe already looked lower than he’d ever seen any rejected suitor in his life, so perhaps it was time to give him some advice.

“My point is, you hurt her terribly, even if you didn’t mean it, because you didn’t speak up when you should have. You didn’t even speak up to explain yourself like you should have after the fact, and until you sort it out the people around here are not going to let Anne forget that other woman. It’s time for you to stop keeping everything to yourself, even if you’re afraid of rejection and judgment. And it is most definitely time for you to take the blame for this mess on yourself, where it belongs. The good people of Avonlea will forgive you for being an idiot, but they won’t ever be so generous to her. So fall on your sword, you absolute dunce.”


	13. An Overdue Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne and Gilbert have a serious talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should say - this was a ridiculously hard chapter to write. I was trying as best I could to wrap my brain around just what the hell Gilbert was thinking in Season 3, so I hope it works for you.

Roy waited patiently while Gilbert collected himself and found some water to rinse his mouth, then they went in search of Anne and Cole.

“Her time – before, did Anne tell you these things?”

“Yes, some of it. Like I said, though, I’ve known a few other girls like her so some of it is just assumptions.”

“I see.”

Roy cast a sidelong glance at Gilbert. “Are you jealous?”

“A bit,” he admitted.

“Well perhaps it will help you to know that people tell me all kinds of things. It is easy to confess to a man who has heard it all and done things twice as bad. You’re her ideal man; she probably didn’t want you to think less of her.”

“I would never!”

“Perhaps, but shame is a powerful thing. I should know, having felt it myself a time or two.”

“You feel _shame?_ ”

“Don’t you go acting surprised that sometimes people cover up powerful feelings.”

Gilbert lapsed into silence at that remark, and they continued their search.

It was a few minutes later when Gilbert spoke up again. “And it was you, all that time, with all those things in my dorm?

“This is what is wrong with you. Why weren’t you more suspicious of me? I think you need Anne more than she needs you. At least she has some common sense.”

“But how –“

“You had the great misfortune to live in a dormitory where the resident assistant –“

“ _Alec?!_ ”

“Yes, the very one, owes me a favor. You see, he was also swept up in a scandal at our lower school that would have resulted in his expulsion, but I could far more easily handle the fallout. And so, the headmaster never learned of his part in it, and for that he is forever grateful.”

“If only I had been in the other dorm.”

“Oh no, there are fellows all over that town who owe me favors. You never had a chance.”

. . .

They had disappeared fairly far into the woods, where neighbors would be less likely to chance upon them. By the time Gilbert and Roy arrived, Anne was completely spent and leaning quietly against a tree, Cole’s comforting arm around her. Anne didn’t say anything when she looked up at them, but seeing Gilbert’s face she knew he had heard what happened. Cole moved aside so that Gilbert could sit beside her and gather her up into his arms.

“Come on, Cole, let’s go see if Marilla can give us a drink and some snacks for all of us.” Roy and Cole swiftly disappeared.

At first Gilbert merely stroked her back gently and pressed kisses into her hair. He wished for all the world that they could just stay like this forever, never letting her leave his embrace so that she would never again face the world without him. Finally, he steeled himself and started a long overdue conversation.

“This is my fault.”

Anne wasn’t expecting that. “You didn’t make Mrs. Lynde say those things. She’s just awful sometimes. You’d think she would have learned not to insult me to by face, by now,” she muttered under her breath.

“Did she do something before?”

“Ah, well, as I recall, she said I was skinny, and homely, and that my hair was as red as carrots.” She laughed a bit at the memory, but Gilbert wasn’t amused at all.

“I really did make a poor choice of words the first time we met, didn’t it?” He said sadly. “I’m not sure I understand, fully, what it was like for you when you came here, or…before that.” He felt her stiffen in his arms. “I don’t want you to tell me anything you don’t want to tell. I just meant – sometimes I feel like, I would be better at understanding where you’re coming from if I knew more. I wouldn’t be so stupid as to call you the one name that was probably the worst choice out of all of them, to start.”

She laughed softly. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I was alone in the world, and it seemed everyone I met hated me – families I lived with, the kids at the orphanage…even most of the kids here, at first. My friend was my reflection in the window.” She smiled sadly. “You know, I hadn’t thought of that in a long time.”

Gilbert pulled her in tightly. “You’ll never have to live like that again,” he said fiercely. “You didn’t deserve it.”

She sniffed away a few tears. “I know I didn’t, and I’m so…happy that my life isn’t like that anymore. I have tried expressing how happy I am in prose and poem and…nothing quite does it justice. I certainly didn’t think I would ever go to college or have a beau.” She mumbled that admission into her lap.

He was reminded that his speech had gone off course.

“And you should’ve had one, a long time ago. I was just…too caught up in myself, to ask.” He grasped one of her hands and absently traced circles over her knuckles as he gathered up the courage to admit what he had been avoiding for more than a year. “I owe you an explanation, about how I felt, back then. And about…Winifred.”

He was watching her closely now, worried after all he had learned today that she was holding back even more pain about the matter than he had previously thought. “I – no, you don’t. It was before us and –“

“But I loved you, the entire time. I knew it, Diana knew it, Bash knew it, and you suspected, didn’t you?”

“I thought, after the dance practice, I had hoped, but – I had also yelled at you so many times.” She attempted a weak smile to cover her painful memory.

Shame overtook his features, and he could hardly look at her. “Then I’ll explain, and you can stop me if you don’t want to hear any more, or if you want to break something over my head.” He wondered if she could feel his pounding heart, for it felt acutely uncomfortable.

“I’d never met someone like you. I guess I should admit, I knew enough to know that some of the other girls in class liked me.” They exchanged amused glances at that. Dibs, indeed. “Then there you were. First, I made you hate me on the first day we met, and then even after you were nicer to me you seemed to be forever running away. I had never met a girl who confused me so much. So, I assumed you hated me at worst and were friendly to me at best. It never occurred to me that I wasn’t understanding you. I like to think I understand everything,” he said with a rueful laugh. “I’ve learned that I don’t, in possibly the worst way I could.”

“So then last year came, and everything was just…too much. Suddenly everyone was talking about courting and college and…the one time I thought you were asking me to write about you on the Take Notice board, it was actually Ruby.”

She gently laid her forehead on his. “I thought she seemed so much more suitable for you, and she was my friend. I didn’t think I had any right to say no.” He squeezed her hand gently and gave her a soft smile.

“After that, everything came like a blur. I told myself that every little odd look or annoyed word between us was more evidence that you didn’t love me. In between there was, just, everything. Mary died, I was wondering if I could even be a doctor, Bash was a mess, I was supposed to be picking a college and trying to pass entrance exams, and in between things at home were a disaster. I thought I could handle it all – I thought I _was_ handling it all. I was a man, right?” By now he was openly weeping. “Who could I talk to anyway? It was the worst I’ve ever missed my father. I just wanted to ask him what the hell I was supposed to be doing.” They sat quietly for a few moments, gripping each other tightly, both mourning the other’s pain.

“Roy’s right – I almost lost you because I was too proud to admit to any of this, to risk the heartbreak of knowing for sure. I was too proud to do anything. I was so wrapped up in hiding it all that I didn’t notice I was giving you up without a fight until it was almost too late.”

“Roy?!”

“He gave me some…opinions, about everything.” Anne’s eyes narrowed a bit at that. “Don’t worry about it – he was right. I’d even considered some of the things he said myself. I was going to talk to you before we started telling anyone. What a surprise, I should have said something earlier so that you didn’t have to deal with Mrs. Lynde,” he said with an amused eyeroll.

He took a shaky breath and continued with the hardest part. “So when I met Winifred, I could tell right away that she was interested. It made me feel better, knowing for sure.” He could see that Anne was trying to cover her upset. “Anne, love, please look at me.” He could see she was barely holding back her tears. “But it was never, ever the same. She was nice to be around, and I kept telling myself that maybe it would change…that it might…become what I felt for you. Then I’d see you and I’d know that I failed to give you up, again, over and over. By the time I admitted to myself that it was hopeless, her father was talking about marriage and the Sorbonne. I didn’t realize that I was in way over my head until I’d almost stumbled into a marriage I didn’t want.”

“We all make mistakes, honey,” she said gently.

“You’ve never considered marriage to someone you don’t love when you had a chance with the girl you do love, so I think we can safely agree that I win worst mistake.” She shrugged a bit and nodded. “I never could’ve gone through with it. I felt sick just thinking about it but I tried to tell myself that she’s pleasant and I might as well have this great career, even if I’d never have the love I hoped I would. I was a complete idiot to talk to you about it after the exam but I was just…panicking. I would pick that day to be more honest with you than I had been in months.” He shook his head ruefully.

“There was so much liquor that night…” Anne added. Her head hurt just thinking about it. They shared another small smile and he gathered up both of her hands into his.

“But I was wrong, not to realize that I was hurting you. How could you not notice that I was in love with you? I really wasn’t very good at hiding it. I _hate_ knowing I hurt you.” Now he was sobbing more than ever before. “And I thought, if I asked, if I reminded you about it, that you might realize you should’ve refused me after all.” She had only ever seen him look truly terrified once before, when Mary was dying. He was nearly shrinking in on himself at the mere thought of losing her.

“Gilbert Blythe, are you ever going to forget you love me again?”

He was sniffling quite loudly now, which would have been adorable if he wasn’t so miserable. “I didn’t precisely forget the last time.”

“Perhaps you can hold off on the jokes, there.” He nodded, contrite once again.

“Jane Eyre said, ‘Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs.’” She shifted to look at him more directly. “You tried to tell me the truth, in the end, and we’re here, aren’t we? Do you want to give up what we have now just because of all that?”

“No!” He shouted so loudly she nearly tumbled backwards in surprise.

“I make mistakes all the time, honey. I try very hard not to make the same mistake twice, but still. I kept making the mistake of believing that you couldn’t have feelings for someone like me. I know I’m worth it, now.”

He pulled her back in, so that she was now snuggled between his legs, resting against his chest, head settled on his shoulder. “You were always worthy.”

“So how about, I’ll remember that I am worthy of your love, and you’ll remember to tell me what you’re thinking, even if you think you should handle things alone.”

He couldn’t help but feel that she was being far more generous than he deserved, but he resolved simply to make sure that he appreciated the precious gift she gave him with her forgiveness, and to learn along with her not to make the same mistake twice.

He felt her chuckle against his shoulder after a beat. “You know, after I was so…stupid to you the day of your father’s funeral, I was even more convinced than ever that I’d never marry because I was skinny and homely and I couldn’t even help you feel better! When Aunt Jo and I talked about it, she said I could just buy a white dress for myself and wear it whenever I wanted. I used to see white dresses in the window and I’d picture buying them and wearing them to concerts and lectures. It’s still hard to imagine buying them for any other reason.”

“Start picturing exactly what white dress you’d like for our wedding, love. I know I have.”

She buried her face in his neck to hide her embarrassed smile. He loved it when she curled into him like that. He couldn’t possibly imagine how he would have spent his life without being able to hold her like this. It was the time he felt most alive in his entire existence.

“There is one more thing,” he ventured carefully.

“More? Did you accidentally court Ruby too?”

“What was that you said about not making jokes at a time like this?”

She huffed her surrender. “Fine then, what is it?”

"I never want you to sit through another conversation like the one with Mrs. Lynde. I want to be there when we’re announcing this courtship, and I will be telling them the truth. I’m not letting anyone unless misunderstand my position just because I was stupid.” After hearing Roy call him stupid so many times, it was significantly easier to admit out loud.

Anne opened her mouth as if to protest and Gilbert stole a quick kiss to silence her. “You won’t change my mind. You’re mine to protect and I didn’t do it before.

“I’m not some delicate flower who needs –“

Gilbert knew that voice and could be certain she would continue for quite some time if he waited, so he decided to risk interrupting her. “Love, I am not completely oblivious, and I would never dare to think of you as delicate. That doesn’t change the fact that I love you and I’m going to protect you however I can.” He gently captured her face so she would see his full sincerity. “I am not letting you go through anything alone, anymore.”

She kissed him sweetly. “You make it sound as though you’ve never been there for me before.”

They talked for what seemed like hours, of things said and thought and felt and misunderstood.

“You know, the first thing I thought of when I heard about the gold was you. I thought if anything would convince you to come home it was that.” She flushed with embarrassment.

“I was planning to come home eventually anyway, but after your letter I couldn’t help myself. Bash teased me something fierce about you, saying that I was writing you a love letter and that I smiled and acted like a moke when I talked about you.” His cheeks were pink as well. “I probably did act that way, after all. He’s never stopped teasing me about you since.”

She was still snuggled close, while he stroked his fingers down her back contentedly. Finally, she’d had enough of feeling the building tension in her stomach as he touched her, and she curled her hand around his neck to pull him in for a kiss. He hadn’t quite expected it, but he recovered quickly and returned her embrace with unconcealed enthusiasm. They were wrapped tightly around each other and nearly about to collapse to the ground when they heard a noise.

“Hey, you two, this was not the purpose in leaving you here! Can’t you be trusted to argue properly instead of engaging in improprieties?” Roy was still marching confidently forward, while Cole nearly ran into a tree in his desperate effort to avoid seeing anything of Gilbert and Anne’s intimate moment.

“Go away, Gardner.”

“Don’t you think we’ve had enough drama for one day without adding your scandalous proclivities-“

“Quiet, Roy,” Anne piped up, snuggling against Gilbert again. “You’d be so disappointed if I found a boring, proper man.”

Gilbert didn’t even try to hide his triumphant smirk.

. . .

“Where have you been?” Gilbert started as soon as Roy reached the porch.

“Perhaps it is time for you to learn a thing or two about discretion and stop asking.”

“I’m not defending you if some mob of Avonlea folk come after you for compromising the girls around here.”

“If you think I have gotten this far in life without knowing how to avoid the wrath of prudish stodgy mobs, you are mistaken,” Roy said with a laugh.

They sat in silence for a while. “How is Anne?” Roy finally asked.

“Better. I really will fix it, Gardner.”

“I believe you. I wouldn’t have said anything if I thought you wouldn’t. Easier to whisk Anne away to Europe and find her an aristocrat, if I had that little faith in you.”

“I would absolutely hunt you down to the ends of the earth –“

“Which, again, is precisely why I said something.”

Gilbert took a deep breath and waited until the flash of anger subsided. “So, why didn’t you hit me?”

“Anne would never have forgiven me. I’m sure I bruised you, but she doesn’t know that,” Roy said with a sly grin.

Gilbert felt the twinge of his sore ribs and raised his eyebrows in agreement.

“When did you know…everything, about me and Anne?”

Roy’s sly grin only widened. “From the very first time we met.”

“But Anne thought you didn’t know who I was!”

“Yes, because sometimes, it is good to not tell people things. Not if you’re you, of course. You need to practice telling people things for a very long time before I’d trust you to not tell people things again. I didn’t tell Anne that I knew, because she would have stopped me from torturing you, sweet girl that she is.”

“Then why…?”

“Because you need help, Blythe. You may be brilliant in some ways, but you are clueless in others.”

Gilbert fixed him with a hard stare.

“I’d learn some humility if I were a man who nearly married someone else before he bothered to try telling the love of his life that he had feelings for her and then asked her to be _pen pals_.”

Roy was irritatingly adept at describing Gilbert’s actions in the worst possible light. “What about your relationships? Can you be in a relationship with the entire cast of the local theatre?”

Roy tipped his head in amusement. “I didn’t forget to tell any of them that I was in love for three years, so perhaps I have some useful advice.”

“Are you going to let this go someday?”

Roy gave a most ungentlemanly snort. “No.”

Gilbert let out a resigned sigh and stared up into the sky.

“You should simply thank your lucky stars that Anne decided to love you anyway and appreciate that you have a good friend around to remind you not to be an idiot again.”

“Good friend?!”

“I am saving you from yourself, you fool. You can thank me later.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I like to imagine here that Roy wasn’t actually seducing anyone at all, but he happened to catch Tillie flirting with some guy along the Birch Path. Roy has seen her at school stringing along a couple more suitors and so he teases her mercilessly for a while about her Hot Girl Summer and she is Loving. It.


	14. Gilbert Finally Does Something and Roy is Impressed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert has a plan.

Gilbert took the next step in swallowing his pride by asking Bash, Cole, and Roy for help formulating a plan. It started with a very early morning visit to Mrs. Lynde, to make it clear just what he thought of her commentary. Mrs. Lynde was shocked that he would speak to her in such a fashion, though she was impressed that he so quickly rose to Anne’s defense.

“Just so that we’re clear, I love Anne exactly as she is, and anyone who thinks I should be pitied is free to tell me directly so that I can set the record straight. I consider it a miracle that she loves me, and I will not tolerate anyone saying anything to the contrary.”

Mrs. Lynde watched Gilbert hurry back to his carriage, dressed carefully in his Sunday best, ready to escort Anne to church. She wasn’t much for sentiment, but watching Gilbert leave after his bold confrontation gave her a kind of melancholy. She had felt it with her own children, a time or two. She had watched them grow up, but somehow it is impossible to imagine them as anything other than children. Then one day, they surprised her in the oddest ways and proved that they had truly crossed a threshold to adulthood, once again marking the transitions of life from one generation to the next. She never saw Anne and Gilbert quite the same way, after that morning.

Next, it was time to publicly declare themselves at church. Roy and Cole rode with Matthew and Marilla. Roy wasn’t one to visit regularly with the Almighty, but he and Cole were to keep watch in case anyone dared to offer insensitive opinions. It was also a fine opportunity to enjoy a view of the ladies of Avonlea in their finery, and he could hardly object to that.

The courtship was obvious from the moment they arrived, since Gilbert took Anne to church in his own carriage and refused to leave her side for a second. Roy thought the constant handholding was a little much, but he supposed after telling him only yesterday all the ways that he nearly ruined this courtship, he couldn’t blame the man for overdoing it a bit. It also seemed, though he would never admit it, that Gilbert had learned quite a bit about openly complimenting his girl from watching Roy’s endless fawning. “I must work on my studies constantly, since she is so much smarter than me.” Roy nearly lost his composure at that one and had a coughing fit to cover it. Anne might be smarter than him, but it wasn’t the books that were going to help with that problem.

Gilbert was evidently on a mission to tell everyone he could find that _he_ had loved her first and despaired that she would never love him after he treated her so badly in school. “I can only pray and thank God that she gave me a chance, after I gathered the courage to pursue her,” he said to the minister. He did not mention his earlier courtship or anything about the timing of his pursuit. (Roy considered this oversimplification acceptable, considering that most of these poor souls would not have the constitution to sit through the hours-long story of Anne and Gilbert’s decidedly complicated history.) Anne was uncharacteristically silent, afraid she would burst into giggles at Gilbert’s very odd new habit of sharing his feelings with every unsuspecting person he passed.

Mrs. Lynde was standing with a party of her friends when they arrived, and the chatter started immediately. “Oh my, that’s a match I hadn’t considered,” Mrs. Bell exclaimed. “I suppose his father isn’t here to raise any objections but goodness, I truly didn’t expect _Anne_ would ever find a proper beau from the Avonlea set!”

Josie was having a brief moment of kindness, perhaps not quite forgetting Anne’s earlier defense of her. “She has had a few interested suitors at Queens. He must be the one who has been secretly sending her flowers to the boarding house. They’ve been coming for months!”

Mrs. Lynde heeded Gilbert’s strong warning and decided it would be in her interest to be the one sharing her particular knowledge of the relationship. No point in letting good gossip go to waste, after all. “Well they shared the news with me yesterday, and let me tell you, I have never seen a man more in love. From his telling, he pursued her, and he’s thrilled to pieces that she agreed! Just imagine how many flowers he had to send, just to convince her to return his regard. I am beginning to think he would be dragging her down the aisle today, but he is determined to let her finish her education and to gain his medical license so that he can care for them both, properly. I still don’t much abide those co-educational institutions,” she sniffed, “but I can’t deny that Anne has intellect and Gilbert admires her for it.”

“You still have to wonder why, knowing what a scandal she is.” Mrs. Bell continued.

Mrs. Lynde might have taken it upon herself to give Anne some harsh advice, but she wasn’t about to let anyone else insult her best friend’s charge. “Marilla and Matthew have given over years of hard work to that girl, and just look at her.” It might be hard to overcome years of prejudice, but anyone with eyes could see that she really wasn’t the gawky girl she had been four years ago. She was currently surrounded by her friends, chattering happily, brilliant hair smartly swept away from her face and wearing a dress that highlighted her figure to perfection. It was also glaringly obvious that her beau had eyes only for her and he was beaming with pride. “Perhaps things change, Mrs. Andrews.”

Gilbert chose that moment to step away from his post as Anne’s besotted lover to seek out Mrs. Lynde. He greeted everyone warmly and turned to Mrs. Lynde. “I trust you agree that this is a wonderful morning?”

Mrs. Lynde could hardly believe that he had come to make sure that his earlier message had been thoroughly received, though she secretly admired him a bit for his audacity. She flashed back to his behavior at the students’ demonstration. _Perhaps he and Anne are more alike than I thought. Just imagine a quiet miss trying to handle this young man._

“It is a better morning for you, I’m sure, having such a beautiful young lady on your arm.” Gilbert wholeheartedly agreed.

. . .

The recent graduates of Avonlea school had already agreed to an afternoon party at the Barry’s house, where Anne and Gilbert had originally planned to announce their courtship to their friends. Several had already seen them at church, so they were accosted immediately upon arriving and peppered with questions.

“Those letters and flowers coming to the boarding house – he was wooing you?!” Tillie squealed. “But then, why the letters to Diana?”

“Those were for Anne, too,” Diana replied, unable to suppress her grin.

“It takes a lot of letters to convince the only girl I’ve ever loved that she should forgive me for starting our relationship by pulling her hair,” Gilbert replied evenly. He still had a tight grasp on her hand, and Anne rested her head against his shoulder for a second while she blushed at his words. He stepped away from his girl with a sweet kiss to her hand and went to find refreshments for both of them. Cole and Roy remained with Anne, enjoying their dear friend’s moment of joy.

Josie Pye sidled up next to Gilbert at the table as he poured lemonade. “The only girl you’ve ever loved, is it? How did you explain the pretty blonde to her, then?” Gilbert started at her blunt question, but he couldn’t help but detect a hint of, was that, concern? Perhaps Josie had softened to Anne after everything that happened, even if she was still mostly sharp elbows and sarcastic comments.

“If you must know, I was an idiot and I pursued someone else because I was afraid Anne didn’t love me even though I hadn’t actually asked her about it. She was a nice girl, and for someone she’ll be a great wife, but she’s not for me. I never proposed because it wasn’t fair to marry someone other than the girl I’ve always loved. I got extremely lucky that Anne agreed to even consider me, after that.”

Josie observed him with a curious smirk and a quirk of her eyebrow. “Fair enough, though that was idiotic.”

Roy joined them just then. “Blythe, the girls want to know if you’ve kissed Anne properly. Time to go rescue her.”

“Right, well, do you know Josie?” They both gave slight nods, as they were classmates. “Excellent, I’m sure you have a lot to discuss. You seem to share many similar opinions.” Gilbert turned with his lemonade and shouted across the lawn to the gaggle of curious ladies surrounding Anne, “YES, all of you nosy people, the answer is yes.” Roy was certain the collective shriek of Anne’s friends could be heard from Charlottetown.

The party continued in much the same fashion for a time, until Anne disappeared into the house with Diana and Cole to help with the food, and to escape her friends’ relentless questions. She was glad they were excited for her, but really, she wasn’t prepared to simply relay every second of her relationship to them. Some things were private, after all (even Diana didn’t know that Gilbert had seen their room).

Roy was mingling outside, doing his very best to charm Prissy Andrews. She was obviously a skeptical audience, and he liked nothing better than a challenge. At one point, Prissy sighed to see her brother Billy holding court with his friends, having lost none of his obnoxious swagger. “I keep hoping someday he’ll grow up,” she said. Roy nodded sympathetically, having met a lot of Billys in his life. They were close enough to hear Billy’s overconfident voice over the din of the party.

“Can you believe Blythe threw over some rich lady for that ugly orphan? I suppose Anne has _grown up_ somewhat,” Billy said with a laugh, gesturing to his chest in a way that left no doubt of his implication, “so who knows. Maybe he’s looking to try a ride with common girls before he goes back to the real ladies.”

Roy heard Prissy’s horrified gasp next to him. He was grateful that Anne wasn’t nearby to hear that disgusting statement, but before he could make a move to respond, a figure flew past him and he realized that Gilbert was. He grabbed Gilbert’s arm before he made it all the way to Billy, but Gilbert merely turned and growled, “You can come and stop me before I do any real harm but not a minute sooner.” Roy let go of him, and in a second Gilbert had already crossed the yard to Billy and thrown him to the ground. He had already gotten in two solid punches to Billy’s jaw before Roy could even reach him.

“You seem to have forgotten what I said the last time I punched you, Billy.”

Roy raised his eyebrows at that. _Last time_?

“I was in love with her then, and I am now, and you will never, ever again, speak to her, or about her, or look at her, or think of her, as long as you live. I will do this as many times as it takes for you to learn that I am serious, I can promise you that.”

By now a crowd had gathered, though thankfully Roy still didn’t see Anne among the faces watching this scene. Gilbert stood back up and Billy scrambled to his feet, face already swelling. Roy decided it was time to quietly move to Gilbert’s side, as he wasn’t entirely certain that Blythe wouldn’t start up again if this scum said the wrong thing.

“In love with her then? That was, what, three years ago? Are you serious? She was a scrawny little nobody!”

It was a good idea that Roy was there, for he held Blythe back this time. “Anne’s already going to kill you for getting into a fight once, Blythe,” he murmured.

Gilbert was still breathing hard, eyes dark and intense. It was a side of Blythe he hadn’t seen before, even in his moments of peak irritation, and Roy noticed a few of the ladies in the crowd fairly swooning at the sight.

“She has never been a nobody for a day in her life, Andrews,” he thundered between gasps. “She is brilliant, and gorgeous, and incredibly brave, and if you had to live her life for even a day you would end up hiding is a corner whimpering like a coward.” Roy loosened his grip a bit and Gilbert advanced on Billy, his eyes still flashing. “Instead she gets the Avery scholarship, and you’re so lazy you almost didn’t graduate Avonlea school.”

Billy opened his mouth as if to speak, but Gilbert wasn’t nearly finished. “Shut up. I have no interest in anything you have to say. I have been in love with Anne since the day we met, but I was so stupid I almost lost her rather than risking rejection by telling her the truth. I can only thank God every day that she decided to forgive me for it so that I didn’t spend the rest of my life alone and full of regret. So don’t you ever say a word about her again, because she is a thousand times better than either of us.”

Gilbert turned to Roy. “I am going to find Anne. See that he’s gone when I come back.”

Roy’s attention was fixed on Billy, who was still eyeing both of them warily. “Gladly.”

Gilbert leaned toward Roy and quietly added, “Knowing what I know about him, it would be preferable if he decided to move out of town, perhaps to a place without any women for him to harass.”

Roy cocked an eyebrow and assessed Billy again. “Interesting. You go find Anne.”

Gilbert rushed in the direction of the house, where Anne had just learned of the confrontation from an hysterical Ruby Gillis and was hurrying outside to intervene. Gilbert stopped her before she had a chance to leave the porch and gently guided her back inside.

Diana ushered everyone else out of the house, wanting to give Anne and Gilbert some privacy. She stayed with them to give some semblance of a chaperone, but of course she was the worst chaperone in the world and stayed in the parlor, playing the piano quite loudly, while Anne and Gilbert disappeared into her father’s study and closed the door.

. . .

As soon as the door closed, Gilbert pulled her in for a fierce kiss. She stepped back in shock, trying to adjust her eyes to the light. The heavy curtains were pulled shut, making it feel several hours later than it actually was.

“What was that about?!” She exclaimed.

“If you mean the kiss, I assumed that you might be prepared to punish me a while for fighting, so I wanted one before my punishment starts.” He gave her a heart stopping grin.

She had learned quickly that he was shockingly cheeky when he gained some confidence, and her heart pounded as she wondered just what he would be like when they were alone in the future. This Gilbert made the butterflies in her stomach feel more like a herd of elephants. Even Persephone’s warnings hadn’t quite prepared her for it. She shook her head, trying to bring herself back to the point of this discussion.

“Why did you punch Billy in the first place?”

He sucked in a breath and hesitated briefly, but he had resolved to turn over a new leaf and talk about things honestly, he supposed. “I really wish I didn’t have to tell you this and of course it isn’t true at all. He…implied that I was going to use you and then court someone more like, well like Winifred.” He was staring hard at the floor by the time he was done and hardly speaking above a whisper, ashamed he had any part in giving Billy ammunition to say such a thing.

“I see,” was her only reply.

Gilbert wrapped his arms tightly around her and buried his face in her hair. She realized now that he was always like this with her, when he was scared. “It isn’t true. I told him as much and I’ve told you I’m not going anywhere –“

“Gilbert, honey, calm down.” She could feel his desperation and even her gentle words did little to ease him. “Billy Andrews is a terrible person and what he says means nothing. He’s the kind of person who would do that, not you.”

“I know, but –“

“No buts. I’m not spending my life worrying about what the likes of Billy Andrews thinks of me. I told you, I trust you.”

He pulled away to look at her, still stroking her hair. She could see the tears shining in his eyes. “Sometimes I can’t believe you love me.”

She gently ran her fingers over his cheek. “I can.” They held each other silently for a beat. “Oh right, I heard something in Ruby’s…rambling that you punched Billy before?”

Now he was grinning a bit. “Oh right, I did say that. Ah, well, yeah, it was back before I went to work at the docks. Billy was saying something about you, and I told him if he hassled you again, he would regret it. It didn’t seem like he was getting the message, so I…lost my patience, a bit.”

“Which means?”

“I punched him in the face and then we got into a fight. I won,” he added.

“Gilbert Blythe, you are actually proud of that?!”

“Yes, because someone needed to shut him up.”

“You need to promise me that you aren’t going to do that in the future. I won’t have you fighting everyone who ever says a bad word about me.”

“I can only keep part of that promise. Anyone who dares to talk about you like Billy did, I am absolutely not going to accept it. And Billy, well, I can’t guarantee that I won’t punch him again, because he is disgusting.”

She rolled her eyes indulgently and hugged him to her. He wasn’t wrong about Billy, after all. “I still don’t think it’s necessary for you to be so overprotective but I’m not going to argue with you about it all day.”

“Good, because I _am_ protective, and I’m not even a little sorry. I’m sorry about lots of things, but not that.”

She noticed in the faint light that his knuckles were red, and she brought them up to her lips. “Look at you,” she murmured. “I don’t like seeing you get hurt.”

The intensity in his eyes returned with a vengeance. He could still feel the energy coursing through his body from the fight, but now that energy had turned its attention to Anne. He stepped closer until she bumped into the desk. His hands flew to her back to catch her, but by now the air was fairly humming between them.

She crushed her mouth to his, unable to handle the tension any longer. There wasn’t a hint of resistance from him at all. To the contrary, if the low growl in his throat and the firm pressure of his hands were any indication, he was as desperate as she was. Soon his lips were trailing a path along her jaw and down the side of her neck, which was a very welcome new sensation.

“God, you’re beautiful even when you’re scolding me.” Evidently, Gilbert planned to be perfectly honest all the time from now on. She delighted to think what other honest things he might say when he was like this.

Diana saw her father approaching the porch just then and called out, “Anne, time to stop your, er, conversation!” Anne and Gilbert rushed outside after a beat, panicked looks on their faces.

“Gilbert, you might want to fix that hair. No one will believe that was from the fight,” she said, pursing her lips in amusement. “You’re losing a pin too, Anne, come here.” Everyone was thankfully looking proper before Mr. Barry entered the house.

“Diana, do I want to know why I was just informed of a fist fight on my lawn?”

“Probably not.”

“We should all count ourselves extremely lucky that your mother is not present.” Mr. Barry gave a short nod and disappeared into his study, blessedly unaware that it had ever been used for a lover’s tryst.

. . .

For the rest of the party, it seemed the guests could talk of nothing else.

“Wasn’t that just the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard?” Ruby sighed. She supposed she should be jealous of Anne, having taken her first crush. But really, when you thought about it, who could deny that they were perfect for each other after a declaration like that?

Moody shook his head in amazement. “I’ll have to admit, that’s the most I’ve liked Blythe since that demonstration after Anne’s article. Who knew he thought about anything, other than studying?”

“I guess I figured he thought about that Charlottetown girl,” Charlie added.

“But did he really? You’d think a fellow about to marry a woman like her would tell absolutely everyone, but he hardly said a word whenever we brought it up! And then he broke it off.”

“Yes, because he’s loved Anne all this time and he couldn’t live without her. He was prepared to be alone forever rather than give her up,” Ruby sighed. Jane, Tillie, and Josie couldn’t help but sigh along with her.

“When you think about it, they are sort of perfect for each other. They can lecture each other about boring subjects instead of bothering the rest of us,” Charlie said with a laugh.

Of course, news of this dramatic confrontation spread through Avonlea like wildfire, reaching Marilla before Anne had even returned home. No one dared say another judgmental word about their courtship, though, except to marvel that the two seemed truly smitten with each other. It turned out that Blythe had a solid right hook, after all, and there was only one reason in the world why he ever used it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for now - I tried to wrap it up at a logical spot. I will probably come back because Roy still has some great pranks to try and probably Anne and Gilbert could make out some more ;), but I've got some medical stuff and the holidays coming up, so I wouldn't want to leave you hanging. I hope you enjoyed reading it, I loved your comments (you all make me laugh so hard), and I might be back in a few weeks!


	15. Gilbert Visits Anne and Roy Mocks Him Endlessly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert is still trying to talk and Anne is trying to make out. :)

Roy missed the end of the party and somehow found his way back to the Blythe farm a while later, finding Gilbert and Bash sitting at the kitchen table.

“That took a while,” was all Gilbert said.

“Andrews is not as receptive to suggestions as you are, Blythe. So, it took some extra effort.” Gilbert didn’t actually care in the slightest what had happened to Billy, as long as he stayed very far away from Anne.

“You took Anne home?” Roy asked.

“Yes, and I received a scolding from Marilla for fighting, until Matthew found out exactly what Billy said and then he was about to go find the ass himself. It all worked out I guess.”

Bash was beaming at Gilbert proudly. “Who knew Blythe could still surprise me?”

. . .

Day one of his new plan seemed to have been a success, but he was still worried about Anne. He was not so naïve as to imagine that he could undo countless mistakes in a single day. Finally, after pacing around his room for so long that he felt sure he had put grooves in the floor, he could stand it no longer and made his escape out the window.

It occurred to him at some point in this escapade (possibly when he was searching the Green Gables barn for a ladder, in the dark) that he probably shouldn’t make a habit of sneaking into Anne’s bedroom all the time. Still, he figured it was worth the risk, to be sure that Anne was truly at ease after everything she had been through. She looked bemused to see him, perched on a ladder outside her room.

“You couldn’t wait another 8 hours to call at the front door?” she teased as she threw open the window to let him inside.

“I wanted to check on you, after all the…excitement, earlier,” he mumbled to the floor.

Joy radiated from her face, clear even in the light of the single candle. She stifled a laugh. “Why are you constantly sneaking into my room just to talk?”

His expression softened immediately, and he wrapped an arm around her waist. “Do you mind it so much?”

“I will never mind seeing you,” she whispered, tracing her fingers over his face. Her breath caught slightly in her throat as she looked into his eyes, burning with the same intensity she had seen this afternoon. Back then, they had been interrupted, but now…

She wasn’t sure if Gilbert was also remembering their kiss today, but suddenly he whispered, “I wish I never had to leave.” His eyes began to rove over her body as he traced a slow path with his free hand up her arm, over her shoulder, until he reached her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. She was already so distracted by his touch that she yelped in surprise against his mouth before she recovered and happily responded.

Sometimes it was a bit overwhelming, how much he liked to touch her. She wasn’t even sure he realized how much he did it, brushing his fingers over hers when they sat next to each other at dinner, tracing circles on her hand when it was entwined with his, slipping his arm around her waist when he came up to speak to her. She had always been aware of Gilbert’s presence before, but feeling his body so close to hers all the time led her to new heights of distraction whenever he was around.

At that exact moment, though, her nerves were melting as the feel of him, the scent of him, the _sound_ of him, pushed all other thoughts out of the way. She barely registered that her back was against the wall until she felt him press even more firmly to her, and she realized that he was, if anything, even more affected. She looked up at him, just as he appeared to come to the same realization.

“Is this…are you alright?” His voice wavered slightly, as though he was trying to cover his hunger.

“Gil…of course I am,” she said, tracing her thumb over his furrowed brow. “Now, are you going to show me what you really want?” He paused, putting a slight distance between them, as his labored breathing settled.

“Maybe we should…talk about some things first.”

Anne stifled her grin as best she could. Of course, he wanted to talk. Again.

He gently took her hands in his and traced his thumb across her knuckle. “Do you know, what happens between men and women? What causes…pregnancy and what doesn’t?”

Anne began stammering a bit, “Well, yes, I – I understand the basics and what causes pregnancy.”

“When did you learn this?” He could hardly breathe while he waited for her response. Roy’s comment about the horrific things that had happened to other girls like Anne had haunted him ever since. Roy seemed reasonably sure she had not experienced the same heart-wrenching fate, but it was eating at him all the same. As if his beloved girl hadn’t been through enough.

“A – a friend, a married woman, told me everything, after you and I started courting. I didn’t want to be totally ignorant of things, not after that humiliating day I asked you about reproduction.”

He breathed a small sigh of relief and chuckled. “Yes, may I say, it is very alarming to be asked questions about fertility from the girl of my dreams, _in front of a church_! I thought I was about to be struck down, if I didn’t die of embarrassment first.”

“It wasn’t my idea to ask! They made me!”

“Well I suppose someday I’ll prove to you that I was right,” his tone was light, but their breaths caught as they both registered the implications of his comment. Anne flushed from head to toe, and Gilbert gathered her to his chest. “Sorry if that was too much.”

She stretched up onto her toes and whispered into his ear, “Just what is it you plan to do with me?”

He groaned. “Anne, please, you’re killing me. I’m trying to be proper.”

“A pity.”

“I am only saying that I know it will happen someday, and I am,” he paused, brushing the backs of his fingers lightly over her face and neck, “very much looking forward to it. But, I don’t ever want you to feel pressure. I have no other expectations, except that I really do love kissing you. And it goes without saying, I want to marry you. Though -” he said with a start, only now realizing that he was possibly proposing by accident, “I want to ask…properly, at the right time, not…in the middle of the night…”

Anne rescued him from his desperate stammering. “I knew what you meant,” she said, beaming at him until he was smiling lovingly back at her. “But,” she continued, sliding her arms behind his neck, “if I just don’t want to wait for years to be close to you, to do more than kiss like we have, then what?”

His breathing was already going ragged. “Anne…” he breathed, still fearful of scaring her. “If you knew how much I want you –“

“Show me,” she answered, without a hint of fear or uncertainty. “How many times do I have to tell you I trust you? I love you, Gilbert.”

He still started off tentatively, not wanting to take any new steps unless he could keep close attention to her reaction and stop if he sensed any hesitation. His lips brushed softly against hers as he let his hands drift slowly down the sides of her body. He could feel her molding herself to him, and his fingers gripped her harder as the sensation shot through him. When he settled his hands on her hips, he turned her slightly and caught her gaze. He had her backed up to the bed and he began to lower her onto it, eyes never leaving hers until he had settled on top of her.

She sighed contentedly and kissed him once. “This is an interesting way to kiss.”

“We can try lots of interesting ways to kiss, to be…close,” he promised. “But we can take our time and start here, for tonight.”

. . .

Gilbert came downstairs the next morning to find three men sitting around the table, three identical grins on their faces.

“You look tired,” Bash started, but none of them could keep up the pretense and collapsed into loud guffaws. Gilbert was left eyeing his companions, mystified.

“So, did my book come in handy when you went to see Anne last night?” Roy asked knowingly.

Gilbert let out a strangled sound that might have been a no.

“Blythe, in the future, there is no point in escaping through the window if every other person in the house is downstairs and sees you do it. Didn’t you see the candles?” Bash was laughing so hard that Delly joined him, blissfully unaware of just what was so funny.

“I went to make sure she was okay, after all that’s happened.” The three troublemakers exchanged dubious glances. “What? Stop whatever you’re thinking right now. I won’t have you getting any wrong ideas about Anne.”

Cole openly rolled his eyes. “None of us are judging her. You’re the one who needs to work on your technique if you’re going to sneak around at night like a proper suitor.”

“Precisely,” Roy piped up. “Time to work on your powers of observation. Some doctors might not be able to notice when a girl is in love with them, but they can usually tell when a girl has a cold and has been crying. They don’t ask if she’s been _chopping onions_!”

“When did that that happen?”

“Are. You. Serious? She was making a cake and the room wouldn’t have smelled like onions! You know what, I’m not sure I have forgiven you as much as I thought. Good God, man.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, thinking about it more, I think Gilbert would be more affected by his mistakes here than Anne. It would shatter his own self image as someone who usually knows how to handle things well, and the guilt would continue to eat at him. He'd be worried for a long time that he isn't worthy of Anne.
> 
> OTOH, for Anne it means he isn't perfect after all, which might be a bit comforting considering how often she gets reminded that she makes mistakes. And, he actively chose her when he had a seemingly good alternative. He even chose her when he didn't know if she'd love him back.
> 
> I do think she'd feel some guilt that he missed out on the Sorbonne, and I could see her making some mistakes because of it. I have one particularly dramatic one in mind, that would result in Gilbert sobbing a lot. Do we need more sobbing, or only Roy messing with Gilbert? I can't decide...


	16. Roy Finally Makes Gilbert Happy by Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick little happy chapter before chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to go all-in on angst, so this is one more happy chapter before I let everyone cry for a while...

The rest of the visit passed far more pleasantly for everyone, or at least, Gilbert didn’t start every morning thinking of places to bury his unwelcome houseguest. Finally, Roy and Cole prepared to depart for Roy’s country house.

“Are you sure you two don’t want to join us, Blythe?” Roy asked, shaking Gilbert’s hand at the train station while Cole and Anne discussed her upcoming visit to Charlottetown in August, before she departed to Redmond College in Halifax for the fall semester. Roy leaned in conspiratorially. “It would be far easier for you to sneak into Anne’s room if she is right down the hall, you know.”

“Why don’t you say that louder, Roy, I’m not sure every busybody in town heard you.”

“Well then, at least you’d be forced to propose properly, instead of putting it off like you do everything else.”

Gilbert couldn’t help but glare at him. “You don’t give…the worst advice…sometimes, but don’t you think you could leave some things for Anne and me to decide by ourselves?”

Roy smiled evenly. “As long as you don’t screw it up this time, I could. Perhaps I’ll write you a letter or two, as friends, just to make sure that you’re on the right path.”

“I usually prefer not to be friends a man who would very much like to have his way with my girl, thank you.”

“Oh that hardly signifies. She never would and besides, I’d like to have my way with lots of people,” Roy said lightly, giving Gilbert a look that caused him a bit of alarm.

“Anyway, even before I knew you two were together, all I really wanted was to find you and absolutely pummel you for breaking her heart.”

“Oh? What stopped you?”

“Your overly generous sweetheart wouldn’t let me. Have some sympathy for a man who never got to hit you.”

“Let’s be clear, I’ve never gotten to hit you either and I have itched to do it many times.” Roy gave him a short nod of acknowledgment there. “Except if you had hit me, I suppose I would have known that Anne had feelings for me far sooner,” Gilbert said wistfully.

“Would you have taken the beating? To know that?”

Gilbert grinned. “I would have taken dozens.”


	17. Gilbert Made a Mistake, and He Is About To Pay For It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert receives the worst news of his life.
> 
> (Set two years after the previous chapter; in the meantime, Gilbert and Anne have gotten engaged (more on that later), Gilbert is just finishing up college and set to go to med school, Anne has one more year left at Redmond.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'll get back to jokes and all that later, but it turns out that I really, really do want to let Gilbert sob for a little while, because I'm mean like that. 
> 
> Good luck, feel free to yell at me :)
> 
> Thank you to the lovely commenters for your opinions about angst vs. no angst. As you can see, I went angst. ;)

Gilbert stared at his breakfast, still bleary eyed. It wasn’t a terribly promising start to his summer, but then again nearly anything had to be an improvement over the last few months. A night out with his friends had improved his mood, somewhat, after so many weeks of doing nothing but study. It hadn’t done anything to ease his worries about the scholarship, and it certainly hadn’t helped his exhaustion. He hoped there might at least be a letter from Anne, to give him some bright spot in the day. She was a bit behind with her usual letter, though he supposed he was even more behind, he thought guiltily. He planned to write to her just after breakfast, now that he had a couple of days to rest before his internship began.

His resident assistant, George, burst into the dining room just then, clutching a paper in his hand. “Blythe, this came for you.”

The telegram was marked “Most Urgent,” which accounted for George’s nerves. He tore open the envelope, and his friends watched as the blood drained from his face.

“I have to…go –“ he shot up from the table and raced out the door, telegram still clutched in his hand. His friends abandoned their breakfasts and followed.

Gilbert tore across the grass toward his dorm, ignoring the cries of his friends behind him. They found him in his room, pacing frantically, carelessly throwing whatever clothes he could find into his bag.

Frank stilled his hand as he tried to stuff his books into the already overfilled valise. “Blythe, what’s going on?”

“I have to go…to Halifax…NOW,” he babbled, his sentence punctuated as he flitted about the room, accomplishing absolutely nothing. “I think there is a train soon…” he stood still finally, fingers running through his hair, face scrunched up as though trying to focus.

“Blythe?” Frank tried again.

Davy saw the crumpled telegram, laying abandoned on the desk. He fought to contain his gasp as he saw the terrifying words, printed in bold font across the page:

ANNE GRAVELY ILL

TYPHOID FEVER

COME IMMEDIATELY TO HALIFAX PROGNOSIS POOR

MY HOUSE 1099 RIDGEWOOD DRIVE

ROY

“Frank…George…” Davy said quietly, passing the wrinkled message to them. Gilbert watched his friends’ eyes widen at the words and finally collapsed into gasping sobs, their reactions making the nightmare real. He hadn’t misread anything or imagined it. Anne was dying, and he was still 1,000 miles away from her.


	18. Roy to the Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne tries to keep a secret from everyone, but she knows she can't hide from Roy forever.

_One week earlier…_

Anne hurried through the streets of Halifax as quickly as she could, but she still had to stop every few feet to catch her breath. She had been feeling unwell for days, though it seemed that her housemates hadn’t noticed until recently. She fought through her exams as best she could, but by the time they ended, she could hardly deny that she had never felt worse in her life. Still, she brushed it off to everyone, afraid that if she made any fuss at all, her friends would contact Marilla and Matthew. And if they knew, they would contact Gilbert.

If she thought her spring semester had been exhausting, she knew it was nothing compared to her fiancé’s. He was finishing his college courses this year, through a program that would allow him to complete his university and medical degrees in just six years, rather than the usual seven. He was also desperate for the Strachan prize, which would grant him a full tuition scholarship for the medical school. Funds were always a concern for him, so the prize would ease the burden considerably. If his letters were to be believed, he did nothing but study. The letters he did send dwindled in length considerably as the semester stretched on, which hardly mattered, since he had no news to share that wasn’t about studying.

Anne hated the desperation she felt, both because she could do nothing to ease what she imagined must be his considerable strain, but also because she felt so distant from him right now. They hadn’t seen each other since the Christmas holiday, and though she tried to keep up her letters, it was difficult to continue when there was very little in his letters by way of response. He was still loving and sweet, but his stress was evident, even on paper. She had kept up her hopes that the situation would improve when he returned home for summer vacation, but her hopes had been dashed a few weeks earlier when Gilbert excitedly wrote to say that he had been offered a much-coveted internship for the summer. He would only be returning home for two weeks, and even then she would have to wait until August.

Though she had resolved to give him a serious piece of her mind in person about his criminally short and infrequent correspondence of late, she had also tried everything she could to avoid adding more worry to his already overtaxed mind. She spoke only of cheerful topics, which was quite difficult, because it had not at all been a cheerful time for her.

So now, she was taking it upon herself to find a doctor, for she began to worry that this illness was not passing as she had hoped. Her friends had returned home just after exams finished yesterday, but she had stayed behind to visit with Roy for a bit while he was in Halifax. Thankfully for her, he wasn’t back yet, so she could spend a few days recovering before he would wonder about her whereabouts.

Five days later, she knew she wouldn’t be able to put it off any longer. The doctor had been alarmed by her high fever and severe pain, so she had remained there as a patient for days, with no sign of improvement. She had begged the doctor not to tell anyone, even paying him up front as best she could so that he would not seek family for payment. Doctor Baker frowned at her with disapproval every time she refused to name a contact, but Gilbert was still in the middle of exams and she couldn’t risk distracting him. It was just a high fever, after all, and people recovered from fevers all the time. But now, Roy had returned, and she knew that he would scour the whole of Halifax, and then to the ends of the earth, if he did not find her safely at home when he came calling. Besides, Cole planned to join them the following day, along with Aunt Jo, and she most definitely could not hold off all three of them.

She sent a note to his home, and as expected, he arrived at the doctor’s office less than an hour later. She did everything she could to appear well, but eventually she had to admit defeat. Her fingers shook as she tried to arrange her hair and wipe the sweat from her brow, as though somehow that would distract him from her flushed cheeks, slow, weak movements, and labored breathing. She fought desperately to stay awake while she waited, hoping to convince him to keep this to himself. She was asleep constantly, these days, so it was a struggle.

She knew whatever efforts she had planned to keep Roy calm would come to nothing, as soon as she saw his face.

. . .

Roy rarely came to Halifax in the years before he met Anne, but after she began her studies at Redmond, he suddenly rediscovered the charms of the oceanside enclave. These days, he was usually in New York, enjoying art school and the considerable amusements of the bustling city. The amusements of Paris called to him regularly, but he wasn’t quite ready to part with his friends closer to home (or one friend, at least). He anticipated, with some disappointment, that Anne would find employment in Toronto after her graduation the following year in order to be close to Gilbert. Roy told himself repeatedly that he really couldn’t follow her all the way to Toronto, so he contented himself with the knowledge that he would get a little more time with his darling Anne, before he really must move on.

His parents had long kept a house in Halifax, owing to his father’s considerable business interests in Nova Scotia. He had hardly been back for an hour before he departed for Anne’s rented house, hoping to coax her into a walk around town. He was a bit surprised to discover that she was not at home, but he shrugged it off and planned to call again later.

The housekeeper held out a note when he entered his house. He recognized Anne’s dainty handwriting immediately, though the script was oddly uneven.

_Dear Roy,_

_I am terribly sorry that I am not available to frolic with you this afternoon as I promised. I’m afraid I am a bit ill at the moment, so we will have to meet again when I recover. I tell you this only because I know you will fret otherwise, but I am in residence with Doctor Baker on Main St. He and the nurses are taking excellent care of me, so I will report on my splendid recovery shortly._

_Your friend,_

_Anne_

Roy would have smiled at her words, if he wasn’t so worried. Anne had to know that her assurances would not dissuade Roy from visiting her.

“I must tend to urgent business, Mrs. Calloway. I may not return tonight,” Roy said crisply, turning on his heel and nearly running out the door.

. . .

As he surveyed the scene before him, Roy nearly did something he never thought he would – he nearly lashed out at Anne. How dare she write such a casual missive when she was clearly desperately ill?! He was too terrified to give into his anger, however, so he set that aside in favor of concern.

“My darling Anne, how am I to amuse you if you are laying in bed?” He joked weakly, taking her outstretched hand in his. Anne, always thin, looked positively skeletal now. The room was poorly lit, but even so Roy could see the flush of her skin, and even her hand felt unnaturally warm. 

“Any chance you could stay a few extra weeks?” She asked. “I will be so disappointed if we don’t sail in the harbor.” Roy noticed, with rising panic, that she was forcing out every word, as though the mere act of speaking was almost more than she could bear. The doctor stepped into Anne’s room just then, joining the nurse who had answered the door. She had given Roy only a grim nod when he asked after Anne and accompanied him to her side without another word.

“Let me talk to the doctor about some more comfortable accommodations. This place is simply too dreary,” he said, with more confidence than he felt. Roy and the doctor stepped outside.

“This is not a minor little flu,” Roy began. It wasn’t a question.

If anything, Doctor Baker looked even more grim than his nurse. “No, it is not. I couldn’t be certain at first – high fevers can mean so many things, but now I believe it is typhoid fever.”

“How -?”

“We aren’t sure, either. I have been asking around about outbreaks, but so far this appears to be an isolated incident. She may have already been weakened from other…matters, and thus more susceptible.”

“Will she,” Roy swallowed, steeling himself for his next question, “I mean, what is the prognosis?”

“Many people recover,” the doctor said, though his tone was flat and unconvincing, “but in this case…she has weakened quickly. I suspect we will not know for at least a week or two, how this will progress.”

Roy absorbed the shock silently, deciding to move straight to planning in order to tamp down his panic once again. “Can we move her to my house? I would be able to keep someone with her at all times.”

After a moment’s pondering, the doctor nodded. “We would need a stretcher, and you’ll need your own full-time nurses, but we can manage it if she would be more comfortable.”

“I will talk to her.” Roy prepared himself to return to Anne. “Also, doctor? The bills come to me from now on. No expense spared.”


	19. Men of Sorrows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert comes face-to-face with his worst nightmare.

In a matter of hours, Roy had settled Anne into a guest room with a veritable army of servants and nurses to tend to her. She hardly noticed, though, for she seemed to doze off at the drop of a hat. The nurse tried to rouse her to take in some beef broth, but even that small effort took considerable work.

Finally, after the excitement of the move to his house died down, they sat alone for a moment. Roy hoped faintly that the move had already improved her spirits, since she was at least sitting up a bit.

“Anne, it is time for me to scold you.”

She glared at him as best she could. “How can you scold a patient?”

He couldn’t help but smile. His darling Anne, cheeky even in the most dire of circumstances. “I am serious, my darling. You told no one?”

“I couldn’t! I thought…that I would recover, and no one would be the wiser, or at least they wouldn’t find out until I was on the mend.”

“Still, Matthew and Marilla would want to know, under any circumstances! And Gilbert! Did you write to him, at least? He should be here!”

“No!” She cried, with more energy than he had seen her muster all day. “You cannot write to him, no matter what. Please, don’t tell anyone. Not yet.”

Now he sat up, intuition pricking. “Why exactly can’t we tell Gilbert?”

“He isn’t done with his exams yet. I can’t distract him at such an important time!”

“Distract him – Anne, you have typhoid fever! Hang his exams!”

Anne’s jaw began to quiver. “You can’t, Roy. He’s already given up so much for me, and he needs these grades to get his scholarship. He talks of nothing else in his letters!”

Roy was at a loss for words. He really doubted that Blythe, boring bookworm that he might be, cared more about any scholarship than he did about his fiancée, but at this point Roy feared that he would worsen Anne’s distress by contacting the man.

“When are his exams over?”

“What day is it today?”

“Thursday.”

“Then, late tomorrow, I think.” Anne’s eyes were already beginning to droop again, and Roy noted that she seemed to fight a little even to breathe.

“Alright, then I won’t tell him until after tomorrow.” Anne opened her mouth as if to protest further, until Roy silenced her gently. “Rest now, darling. We’ll discuss it later.”

. . .

By the next morning, though, Roy felt he could not wait any longer. Anne’s fever continued to rise, and her body continued to weaken.

“You should contact her family,” the doctor agreed with a sympathetic look.

Roy decided to send servants to Avonlea to collect Matthew and Marilla, to avoid any confusion or lost messages. With any luck, they would arrive by nightfall. “Please also bring Sebastian LaCroix, oh, and Diana Barry if she has returned. Hell, bring anyone they want. We will find a place for them all.”

Roy debated all day about sending a telegram to Gilbert. The part of him that bore a grudging respect for Blythe felt truly uneasy about keeping such serious news from him, but the part of him that was still overprotective of Anne couldn’t begin to understand why Anne was so reluctant in the first place.

He sat by her bedside, as he had for most of the past 24 hours, and watched her fitful sleep. As instructed by the nurse, he offered Anne sips of water whenever she awoke, and changed the cool cloths on her forehead. Ordinarily, he was a man of action, and helplessly watching his darling Anne’s constant, slow demise was something akin to torture. Occasionally, as she thrashed about, he would see the glints of the green-and-gold ring on her left hand. In the moments when he could hardly contain his envy, he imagined the kind of ring that he would have bought Anne, if he had been the kind of man she needed. He would have draped her in diamonds, if he could, except then he remembered that she didn’t find diamonds all that impressive, anyway. In its own way, Gilbert’s ring suited her copper hair and pale skin, as though it had been made for her all along.

Which brought him back to his earlier dilemma. Though he never wanted to leave Anne’s side, even he knew that Gilbert should be the man keeping constant vigil over her. So why didn’t she want him here?

She finally roused for a bit in the afternoon, blinking at the ceiling.

“Anne, darling, please try to have some broth.”

She nodded quietly and struggled to sit up with the help of the nurse.

“I sent someone to fetch Matthew and Marilla.” Anne’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, but you can’t really put it off any longer.” He thought she would have cried, if she had anything left in her body for tears.

“You have to tell them not to tell Gilbert.”

“Anne, you said – no, Anne, this is insane. It was already insane, but his exams are over today. He should be here!”

“He still needs to stay in Toronto for his internship! I am not messing anything else up for him.”

“Did he…did he say you were messing things up for him?” Roy had been nearly certain that Blythe had learned his lesson, but this conversation was truly disappointing.

“No, Gilbert would never say anything like that, but I know.” Anne stared at her hands, her exhaustion finally breaking down the sorrow she had felt for months, all alone. “It’s been…so hard, coming up with the money to keep him in school. Gilbert’s been working in Toronto, but with four people to support at home now, they didn’t make as much from the orchard at first as they hoped. At one point, they nearly had to sell off a piece of the farm, just to do it. Gilbert…didn’t tell me. He didn’t want me to be upset.” Roy tried to hide his frustration; Anne was shaken enough as it was. Would Blythe never learn?

“How did you find out, then?”

“Bash told me. We found another way – I don’t know what Bash told him about how he got the money. I’ve also been giving Bash what I can from my writing money, to help. Gilbert doesn’t know about that either,” she muttered quietly. “And then…I’ve seen all the news about the Sorbonne in the papers. Their research lately – it’s been remarkable. I’m sure Gilbert has seen it too, though he doesn’t say anything about it.” She flashed Roy a weak smile that only served to highlight her sunken features. “Without me, he’d be at the Sorbonne, in the middle of it all, without a care in the world. So, the least I can do is help him do well at U of T, and this scholarship and the internship would mean everything to him. After this internship, he even has a chance at a research spot at Harvard eventually!”

“Did he say that was what he wanted?”

“He asked me in his letter if I would mind living in the States, were the opportunity to arise. You know Gilbert – he tries to be modest and he says that what he wants is to help people and be with me, but…how can that be enough? He’s so talented…,” Anne’s tears fell in earnest now, though after a moment she was too exhausted and parched even to cry.

“Darling, just rest now. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Gilbert wants nothing more than he wants to be with you, but I won’t argue with you about it right now.”

The afternoon provided a somewhat welcome respite, as Aunt Jo, Cole, Marilla, Matthew, Bash, and Diana arrived. Their presence improved Anne’s spirits a bit, but her temperature climbed even as she basked in the happiness of being surrounded by loved ones.

“Is Gilbert on his way?” Marilla asked quietly, once they had all settled downstairs for dinner. Anne, once again, had fallen asleep mere moments after waking to greet everyone.

“Anne…asked that we wait,” Roy replied, staring hard at his soup.

“He doesn’t know?!” Bash cried, while the rest of the group shifted uncomfortably in their seats and eyed Roy incredulously.

“She is afraid of disrupting his studies.” This time, Roy was unable to keep the judgment from his voice. “She said his work is very important to him, right now.” The rest of the meal was mostly silent, and Matthew and Marilla both rushed back to Anne’s side as soon as they had taken in a few bites.

Bash caught him after dinner. “We have to tell Gilbert. He’ll be out of his mind as it is, finding out after all this time.”

“I agree, but what do we tell Anne? And what if she’s right, that he doesn’t want to leave his internship?

“Anne can’t possibly believe that’s true, can she?”

“I really doubt it’s true. My guess is, Blythe’s had a bit of tunnel vision these last few months. I heard about the issue with his tuition.”

Bash’s mouth was set in a hard line. “That does sound like him, doesn’t it?” He shook his head. “Blythe, I swear…”

“Let’s see if we can convince her one more time.” They started up the stairs and nearly collided with the nurse.

“Mr. Gardner, excuse me, I need to find your maid right away to fetch the doctor.”

“What is going on?”

The nurse let out a shaky breath. “Miss Shirley Cuthbert, she’s going into delirium.”

Roy could feel his heart nearly pounding out of his chest. “I take it that is not a good sign?”

“No.” The nurse took in his distress and patted his shoulder. “I’m very sorry, but I think you all should prepare yourselves.” She rushed down the stairs, leaving Roy and Bash to absorb their shock.

“I think I’ll send that message to Gilbert as soon as the telegraph office opens in the morning,” Roy finally choked out.

. . .

Gilbert had hardly moved in hours, though he didn’t notice. His longtime roommate had insisted on making the journey with him, likely worried that he would roam aimlessly around Canada otherwise, in his current state. Frank tried to divert his attention on occasion, to offer him food or ask if he needed to take a stroll to stretch his legs. He refused every offer without even turning his head. When he moved or noticed his surroundings at all, he remembered why he was on this train in the first place. It was better to stare blankly at the rolling countryside, seeing and feeling nothing, than to bear the weight on his chest every time he faced reality.

They were nearly there, now, and Gilbert could avoid it no more. The thought had crossed his mind at one point that she might already be gone by the time he arrived, but after he became violently sick he avoided going down that awful train of thought again. Anne’s last letter was still crumpled in his hand, though the last time he actually read it they were still in Ontario.

It was dated twelve days prior, when Anne was still in the middle of her exams. She had lamented over her “unimaginative” classics professor and tenderly assured him that they would make up for every moment apart during his next visit. Anne’s letters came every week, on the same day, like clockwork. _I should have done something, when it didn’t come this time._ It wasn’t like Anne at all, to miss a letter. _Unlike me_ , he thought with a grimace.

He’d hardly noticed the days of the week, over the last few months, since every day was a blur much like any other. There was nothing but an endless list of tasks, and often he only noticed it was Wednesday because Anne’s letter arrived. Her latest letter stayed tucked into his books, always, like a talisman. He kept her face in his mind when he thought he couldn’t go any further. He was going to take care of her for the rest of his life, so he had to work hard and make her proud of him. Still, all that hard work had left him with no energy for anything else, even letters sometimes. He contented himself with leaving a few precious minutes at the end of each day as he drifted to sleep, picturing a time when she would be comfortably cuddled in his arms again.

He didn’t even have that dream to content him anymore, he thought as he shuffled off the train at Frank’s direction. He vaguely heard Frank asking a conductor about the distance from the station to Roy’s address, and it occurred to him that he should be the one to say something. He had been to Roy’s house once before and knew the direction. What he wouldn’t give to go back to that day, where the worst thing that happened was that Roy was exactly as nauseatingly affectionate to Anne as he always was. He’d live through that day a thousand times, if he never had to live through this one.

Still, he said nothing and stood slumped against a brick wall, until Frank dragged him to a hired carriage. In no time, Gilbert and Frank were staring up at Roy’s imposing waterfront mansion. Frank had heard plenty over the years about the “rich dandy jackass” who tortured the two of them with his pranks their first year (and their second year, actually), so the palatial home did not come as a surprise. He wondered all day what Gilbert thought of his fiancée being in residence at the home of his nemesis, of all people, but he didn’t dare risk making things worse by bringing it up. Their friends had sent a telegram back to Roy as soon as they found Gilbert a train ticket home, so it was also no surprise when the door opened even before they had reached it.

A sharp-eyed, middle-aged woman introduced herself as the housekeeper and took their hats, just as Bash came rushing out into the hallway and pulled Gilbert into an embrace without a word.

Gilbert hadn’t cried since he last read Anne’s letter, but before he could even look up at Bash, he could feel his eyes fill with tears. “Is she – Bash, please….”

“She’s sleeping,” Bash murmured. He wasn’t quite ready to tell his brother that Anne was also delirious and probably wouldn’t notice his presence. With a quiet nod to Frank, he led Gilbert up the stairs. Diana and Roy stood from their chairs next to Anne’s bed as the pair entered her room.

There was no place for Roy’s annoyance and frustration with Gilbert now, as he watched Gilbert’s face turn from misery to utter torture at the sight of his fiancée’s nearly lifeless body. He wasn’t sure if it was better or worse that Anne was quietly sleeping at the moment. At least when she awakened and thrashed about, uncomprehending anyone or anything around her, there was some evidence, however heartbreaking, that she was still with them. Most of the time, she lay unmoving, breath shallow, skin mottled and gray where it wasn’t flushed from the raging fever. 

Gilbert nodded to both of them, but he was too focused on Anne to manage anything else. The room was eerily quiet as Roy and Diana shuffled to the door, allowing Gilbert to take their places at Anne’s side.

“I will find the doctor for you, Blythe,” Roy finally said. “Diana, would you care to join me?” She nodded in his direction but kept her attention on Gilbert, who was intently observing Anne’s crimson cheeks and the weak rise and fall of her chest. She supposed it was no surprise that the future doctor would focus on Anne’s worrisome symptoms. He probably didn’t need Doctor Baker to confirm his worst fears.

“I’ll go see Frank, for a minute,” Bash added. Bash closed the door behind them, after another sorrowful glance at Gilbert’s agonized expression. Gilbert had picked up the hand that still wore his ring and caressed it to his cheek.

When they were finally alone, he found the courage to speak. “I’m here, Anne-girl,” he whispered, voice breaking.


	20. Gilbert Learns One More Piece of Bad News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne is really keeping a lot of secrets, and she should stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have realized looking at some other fics that other writers are really great about notes to readers and I am terrible, so for that I am very sorry! It might come as no surprise to anyone that I not particularly good at social media in general.
> 
> So let me just say, thanks very much for reading and I love seeing your comments! Feel free to send any requests or opinions about what should happen - it's entirely possible I'll write something just because you asked for it. ;)

Over the next few hours, nothing and no one could move Gilbert from his place at Anne’s bedside. After the third or fourth person tried to convince him to rest for a while, Bash finally pulled everyone into the parlor.

“Blythe is the stubbornest man in the world when push comes to shove, especially when it comes to Anne,” he said. “There is no point in telling him anything right now, trust me. You could try to drag him away and he would climb in a window to get back to her.” Bash flashed a look at Roy and Cole, and they both broke into a slight grin. Bash really wasn’t exaggerating, after all.

“He is going to make himself sick,” Marilla protested.

Roy suspected that Gilbert was likely to end up in dire straits no matter what any of them said or did. He and Bash had discussed it, in hushed, worried tones, after Gilbert nearly shook with horror when he first witnessed Anne’s bouts of delirium.

Roy could hardly bring himself to discuss the possibility, but he steeled himself and said it anyway. “If she…doesn’t make it,” he stopped and sucked in a painful breath, “I don’t know what he’s going to do. I know how I was with my brother, and I didn’t have to watch him die like this.”

Bash nodded. “With Mary, at least I had Delly. I had to keep going.”

“We’ll have to help him,” Roy finally said, though he wondered how he would do that when he wasn’t sure he could keep going himself. Aunt Jo and Cole found them just then and quietly shared in their moment of sorrow. Then they did what any good friends would do, and asked if they would like some tea.

. . .

Roy arose at dawn the next morning, feeling no better than he had a few hours earlier when he had finally collapsed into his bed. The house was still mostly quiet, but in Anne’s room he found Diana dozing in squashy armchair near the fireplace and a nurse keeping careful watch nearby. Gilbert, of course, was exactly where he had been since the moment he arrived. Roy settled into the chair next to him.

“Any change?” he whispered.

Gilbert started for a second. He had been staring off into space for hours and hadn’t noticed Roy’s presence. “No,” he said dully. After kissing Anne’s hand, as he had constantly, he shifted a bit and leaned over to Roy.

“Marilla said you’re the one who found out she was sick.”

Roy shot him a look he couldn’t read and nodded. “I was expecting to visit with her for a few days, so she knew she didn’t have any way to hide it longer. Otherwise, probably none of us would have known.”

“Oh yes, she did mention your visit.” Gilbert would have been more annoyed by that piece of news, if it hadn’t come in a letter he received the same day that he needed to finish a grueling term paper. The one advantage to a miserably difficult semester was that he didn’t have time to think about Roy. “But that was only…four or five days ago?”

Roy had to think about that one for a second. It felt like an eternity had passed since then. “Yes, that’s about right.”

“But she must have been sick for weeks.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t she say anything, to anyone? Why didn’t she tell _me_?” Gilbert muttered to himself. After the initial despair had passed, this question had finally occurred to him and it had been gnawing at him all night. He cast an assessing stare at Roy, who was suddenly fascinated with the flower print on the bedspread. “Roy?” He ground out, his expression hard.

“Let’s discuss this somewhere else,” Roy finally said, heading for the door. To his relief, Gilbert followed.

“You know why, don’t you?” Gilbert said before Roy even had a chance to shut the parlor door. Roy barely concealed his eyeroll. Blythe was so inconveniently smart sometimes, and so inconveniently foolish every other moment of his life. It was maddening.

“Does it really matter right now?” Roy didn’t think that argument had a snowball’s chance in hell of working, but it seemed worth a shot.

“My fiancée didn’t bother to tell me that she was so ill that she can’t lift her head or breathe properly, so yes, I think it matters.”

“Fine.” Roy nearly started the next sentence three times before a coherent word came out of his mouth. It seemed impossible to answer Gilbert’s question without wanting to thrash the fellow, just a bit. “She thought you needed to stay focused on your exams and your internship.”

“Why on earth would she think I’d care more about that than _her_?!”

“I don’t know, because your letters have been about nothing but your exams and your internship? Because you lied about your tuition money and she had to find out your dire financial circumstances from Bash? And you haven’t been home in months?” Roy said, more harshly than he intended.

Gilbert shut his eyes as he replayed the last few months in his mind. “Oh, no.”

“She wasn’t angry with you,” Roy continued, though his tone suggested that he thought Anne was being far kinder than Gilbert deserved. “But Anne didn’t suddenly become a different person just because you put a ring on her finger. That was never going to stop her from having moments of doubt about her place in your life. We all know you’re married to your career as much as to her.”

“That’s not true!”

“You were planning to go almost nine months without seeing your fiancée, Blythe. If you don’t understand why she might wonder about your priorities, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Gilbert sank into a chair, head in his hands. “Even if that’s…what she believed,” he finally said, “the doctor told me she’s known for, what, a week? That it could be – serious?” His voice caught at the end and he fought back another flood of tears. “Even if she thought – wrongly, I should add – that she shouldn’t tell me about a minor illness, how could she think I am so… _unfeeling_ , that I wouldn’t want to be here if she’s _dying_?” He hadn’t ever said that word out loud, and he nearly bit his tongue, hearing it from his own mouth.

“I – you know basically what she said.”

“Roy, you and I both know you asked her that question. You aren’t stupid and neither am I.”

 _Dammit_ , _he really is only smart at the most inconvenient times._ “I really don’t want to say.”

“Roy, if you don’t start talking right now I’m going to fucking –“

“Okay!” Roy had never heard Gilbert curse at all, so he was momentarily shocked into total honesty. “She wanted you to stay at your internship. She said if she died and you didn’t know until it was too late for you to leave Toronto, at least she wouldn’t take your future from you, again.”

If Roy thought Gilbert looked like hell before, he was positively ashen now.

. . .

The doctor assessed Anne’s temperature and the crackling sounds in her lungs, before passing the stethoscope to Gilbert so that he could hear for himself. The doctor had decided to at least give the young man the courtesy of treating him like a colleague and hadn’t sugar-coated his medical assessments.

“If her temperature doesn’t drop soon, I don’t think she has long,” he said, not unkindly. “Even so, the pneumonia may still take hold even if the fever passes. By tomorrow morning, I think we’ll know more.”

Gilbert tended to Anne uselessly after that, adjusting bedclothes, brushing away nonexistent specks of something, whatever task he could to take his mind off the horror that filled it whenever he was left without something to do. The only thing worse than thinking about a future without Anne, was thinking about his conversation with Roy that morning.

 _How could I have ever let her think, for a second, that I would have been better off at the Sorbonne?_ He would have spent his life as a farmer before he would have given her up. _How could I have let her think that anything in the world mattered more than her?_

He lifted her arm gently, pushing up the sleeve of her nightgown to wipe down her arms and hands, though there was really no need. Cole and Diana, keeping silent watch nearby, started at his gasp.

“What is this?!” He lifted Anne’s pale hand, the skin of her bare arm now visible in the daylight.

Cole and Diana exchanged glances, trying to come to agreement between them. They knew full well what Gilbert was asking, but they also knew full well that Anne had kept the secret from him on purpose. Diana buried her face in her hands while Cole continued to plead silently with her to say something.

“Diana, what the hell is this?”

Diana took in a shaky breath. “I assume you mean Anne’s arm.”

“Of course I mean her arm! This cut here is –“ Gilbert looked again, more closely now, “at least six inches long?! And deep? Given the position, she could have bled out!”

“It did…need stitches,” Diana started slowly.

“This clearly happened recently. Why didn’t I know about it?! What happened?”

Cole worried his lip between his teeth and turned to Diana. “Just tell him. It can’t get much worse.”

Diana shot him a look that suggested she strongly disagreed with that assessment, but she shrugged her shoulders in defeat.

“No one here knows. Just Cole and I, actually. Maybe the doctor, I don’t know. There was…a classmate, who showed a lot of interest in her – not that she ever reciprocated,” she hastened to add. Cole rolled his eyes beside her, and she had to admit she felt silly even saying it. Anne would sooner express a romantic preference for trees than look at another man. Still, Gilbert’s eyes were already going hard and she wasn’t close to finished. “She put him off, repeatedly. He’d send her flowers, she returned them. Everyone knows she’s engaged and madly in love with you – she couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t stop.” Gilbert’s dangerous glint was getting stronger. “She started…making sure she had a companion everywhere, after he tried to follow her home one night.”

She could see Gilbert’s chest rising and falling, as he fought to hold back whatever roiling emotions he felt. She rushed through the next part. “But then, at the end of year party, he caught her alone on the way back from the ladies’ room. Her companion had stepped out for air.” She would never dare tell Gilbert the name of the person who had failed Anne that night. She knew Anne’s college friends had tried everything they could to keep her protected and were devastated that she came to harm. “He tried to grab for her, to pull her into an empty room.” If ever she had wondered before if Gilbert Blythe was truly capable of serious violence, the look on his face at that moment dispelled any doubt. “She ran before he was really…successful in any way,” she cringed at that wording, but what else was she supposed to say? “and her companion saw the entire thing and came to intervene. But as she was struggling, she caught her arm on a stray piece of metal in the doorframe. That’s what caused the…mark.”

Gilbert’s hand was pressed so tightly to his mouth, it seemed he might suffocate himself somehow. For a moment, no one moved, and the only sound was Anne shifting uncomfortably on the bed.

“Leave us,” Gilbert finally said, voice barely above a whisper. Cole and Diana stared at him, unsure that they had heard him right. “Please.” His eyes flickered up to Diana’s, showing nothing but torture in their depths. “I need to talk to Anne alone.”

Cole responded first, taking Diana gently by the shoulders and leading her out the door without a word.

“Should we really have left Gilbert alone in there?” Diana whispered urgently.

“Let’s wait a while,” Cole replied, wrapping his long-suffering friend in a comforting hug, while they both listened carefully at the door.

. . .

At first, Gilbert buried his face in the bedcovers, too overwhelmed to do or say anything. He still hadn’t let go of Anne’s arm, and he could feel the slight ridge where the angry slash, nearly from wrist to elbow, was still reddened and healing. He felt sick just thinking about how much it must have hurt. Gilbert crawled into the bed next to Anne, pulling her into his arms.

“What were you thinking, keeping all of this from me?” He said between sobs. “How could I fail you this much?! Anne-girl, you can’t do this to me. You can’t leave me right now. You can’t…you can’t…,” his voice broke. He said nothing for what seemed like hours, merely clinging to her desperately and stroking her face. She remained unconscious, still shockingly hot, and sweating.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” he said finally. “Anne, please, I need just one more chance, to tell you how sorry I am!” He collapsed again into heartbreaking cries, not noticing or caring that his distress could be heard well outside the room. Matthew, Marilla, and Roy came running instantly, only to be stopped by Cole and Diana.

“Nothing’s changed; he just…needs a little time,” Diana assured them. Eventually, they all drifted away and left Gilbert to say his goodbyes to the love of his life, uninterrupted.

Gilbert sobbed for so long that the room was growing dark around him. When he finally settled back into gulping breaths and the tears stopped streaming down his face, Gilbert realized that Anne had finally opened her eyes for the first time all day.

“Anne-girl,” he started, hastily wiping away his tears and forcing a smile. She held his steady gaze for so long that he began to wonder if she really knew what she was seeing, or who he was. Then suddenly, he felt it. Her paper-thin hand, sliding into his own.

“Gil…” she started weakly, voice rough from lack of use. “I missed you so much.”

He clasped her hand as tightly as he dared and softly kissed her forehead. “I dreamt about seeing your face every day.”

She could only nod a little, exhausted as she was from the tiny effort she made to speak. He shifted her in his arms as gently as he could, afraid she might break from the slightest touch. Finally, she was settled against his chest, and he hoped he hadn’t imagined her contented sigh. They had gotten into the habit of sneaking in time alone whenever they could, and Anne loved to hide away in the barn and cuddle in exactly the position they were in now. Often, she dozed during those stolen encounters, while he watched her breath pass over her gorgeous lips and pictured the day when she would sleep like that in their shared bed.

“Anne,” he said, one last, desperate idea crossing his mind, “I didn’t get a chance to tell you everything that I want to do now that we’re together again? Do you know how much I thought of you? I have four books I want to read to you, and three article ideas, and I haven’t seen our apple tree in ages…. I seem to recall you promised me a picnic, didn’t you? I insist on two picnics, in fact.”

He continued on for ages, talking of everything and nothing. He had talked of summer days by the shore and playtime with Delly until he was sure that she had dozed off again, until he looked back down and realized that her eyes were still fixed on him. When he stopped, her eyebrows rose slightly, as though asking him to continue.

He reminisced about every happy memory of the two of them that came to his mind, starting with the very first day they met.

“Did I ever tell you, that when I came home that day, with a big red mark on my face, I smiled so much telling my father the story that he laughed and called me a Blythe through and through? Only a Blythe would have a crush on a girl because she hit him with a slate, he said.” He chuckled at the memory. “My father saw right through me from the very start.”

He stroked his fingers through her hair, continuing on through spellings bees and letters to Trinidad, Christmases, Take Notice boards, and frantic sprints through Charlottetown to kiss the girl of his dreams. She never said another word, but he felt her fingers faintly stroking his hand.

“Do you remember, when I proposed? I put up a new Take Notice board at the school and finally put up the note that I wanted to write all along. _Gilbert Blythe would like to marry Anne Shirley Cuthbert._ I was so nervous, and you called me a lovable idiot for ever worrying that you might say no.” He laughed softly, remembering her freckled face, beaming at him as the summer sun threatened to burn her cheeks. “And then you pulled me into the schoolhouse, shoved a chair under the door, and we didn’t leave for an hour.” He whispered the last part low in her ear, not wanting anyone outside the room to overhear. He bent his head and shared a few other precious memories that were far too intimate to allow anyone else to ever know.

He wondered briefly if it was really appropriate to discuss such matters at a person’s sickbed, but this was his Anne, after all. She treasured their closeness as equally as he did, and she would probably think he was the one who had fallen ill if he suddenly stopped murmuring naughty things in her ear from time to time. In fact, he reminded her in smooth, enticing tones, he had dared to whisper entirely scandalous fantasies in her ear all night at the last family Christmas party, until he thought she would both kiss him passionately and throw him into the still-lit Christmas tree, all at the same time. As it was, she had elbowed him in the stomach when Matthew turned his back and then dared him to climb into her window that night.

“I’ll never forget that night I snuck into your room the first time. Laying on your bed, holding you like that. I never wanted to leave. I wanted to stay, where I knew you were safe and warm and happy, forever. I’ve been dreaming of holding you like that every night since. You have to give me a chance, to wake up in the morning with you in my arms.”

By then, he could hardly keep his eyes open. Anne was asleep again, still curled into him, fingers intertwined with his. The thought crossed his mind that he should leave her bed before anyone else walked in, but his exhaustion overtook him a moment later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest, I really debated how I wrote this chapter because, wow, I've gone all-in on angst and sometimes I was like - too much? I left it because I thought it would make sense that Anne would have a months-long secret in her effort to protect Gilbert, at least in her mind. Plus, she probably thought she could handle it, and by the time things got really bad it seemed too late to upset him with a problem that had already passed. Gilbert, predictably, doesn't want protecting and would lose his shit when he finds out (although he conveniently forgot that he also hid things from her). They'll really learn to communicate fully after this.
> 
> ETA - I really did cut myself in nearly the same way on a very old window frame, so I felt more justified with this explanation. :) I had a friend who was also cut down to muscle on an old radiator. Old houses = all kinds of ways to injure yourself.


	21. Frank and Roy Say Their Piece

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see Gilbert's feelings from a slightly different perspective, and a bit more of Anne's perspective.

It was Diana who found them at midnight. She wisely raced to check Anne’s room when the doctor returned, and roused Gilbert from Anne’s bed before anyone else saw them. Roy caught a glimpse of the scene from his vigil outside her room, but he certainly wouldn’t say anything.

Nearly everyone had been awake when the doctor arrived. Bash had been present with Gilbert when the doctor gave him the gut-wrenching news earlier that afternoon that he may very well lose Anne before the next day was out. Bash knew full well that it was better to hear such things from a loved one, rather than a well-meaning stranger, so he took it upon himself to inform the rest of their party. Matthew and Marilla disappeared with Aunt Jo for a time, not wanting to upset the young people further with their own raw grief. Frank heard last, having returned from a long walk. He was from Ottawa and had never been to Halifax before. Roy had insisted that he stay along with the rest of them, and he had every desire to support his good friend. Still, he kept himself slightly apart from Anne’s family and friends, not wishing to intrude on them at such a difficult time.

Bash led him to a sitting room, where the maid had just set out some tea. “The doctor thinks it won’t be long, now. A day or so.”

Frank let out a shaky sigh. “How is Gilbert?”

Bash merely hung his head and cast Frank a pained look.

“Right.” Frank sipped his tea. He didn’t even much like tea, but that hardly mattered. It was something to do. It was better than spending his time trying to decide when to tell Gilbert that he’d won the Strachan prize, after all. The accomplishment seemed bitter and ironic at this point, since it cost him precious days with the woman he loved. He began to worry that Gilbert might never return to school, in his current state of mind.

He doubted that his friend would care about much of anything if he lost Anne. Every time he saw Gilbert, the past few days, Frank’s mind flashed to the first time he ever said Anne’s name in Frank’s presence. His new roommate had arrived at school, at the very last minute, and proceeded to rifle through his bags for a pen and paper before he had even unpacked.

“My apologies,” he’d said, catching Frank’s confused stare, “I must finish this letter before our first class.”

“Something so important that it can’t wait until the afternoon mail?”

“Uh, yes,” Gilbert had replied absently, already intently copying some jumbled scrawl from a notebook onto a fresh sheet of paper.

“What, you have a girl who needs a letter that badly?” Frank joked, but he saw that Gilbert’s face had broken into a delighted grin. “What’s her name?”

Gilbert finally looked up. “Anne.” Frank’s mother had once described his older brother as ‘besotted’ with his wife, but Frank wasn’t sure he had ever really understood the term until he saw Gilbert that morning. Gilbert said her name almost musically, lingering over it like the mere word shot through his soul.

Frank soon learned that his roommate’s behavior on his first day was actually quite out of the ordinary for him. Gilbert was a good friend and a helpful study partner, but most of the time he was almost painfully practical and even keeled. Frank didn’t even bother telling their other friends about Gilbert’s habit of sitting at his desk every night, a goofy smile plastered across his face, while he wrote to Anne. Who would believe that Gilbert could behave like that, unless they saw it for themselves? It was still nothing to his expression when he received her letters. Frank had learned long ago to avoid their room on Wednesday afternoons, since his reactions to her words were so bizarrely overwrought that Frank couldn’t bear to witness it. Frank began to think that he didn’t want to fall in love, if it would turn him into such a sentimental fool.

Then, she had surprised him in Toronto one time, and Frank realized he didn’t know the half of it. Gilbert had been positively giddy, when he caught sight of her as they left their last class that afternoon. If anyone in their program didn’t know that Blythe was madly in love with a girl before that day, they knew after they watched him spin her in circles around the quad and then kiss her breathless. The professor saw the entire display and actually told Blythe at their next class that he really ought to propose.

“This summer,” Gilbert assured him, flashing a bashful grin that had his friends wondering if Anne actually possessed some kind of otherworldly power over him.

Their friends were soon half besotted themselves with Gilbert’s red-headed sweetheart. It wasn’t hard to see why he had fallen for his lively, expressive, affectionate girl.

“She’s something to look at, too, just like Roy said,” Alec had whispered to him. Frank agreed, but he wasn’t about to risk Gilbert’s wrath by pointing out that obvious fact out loud. Frank had heard enough about Anne’s overly admiring friend Roy to know that Gilbert did not take kindly to such comments.

Bash’s question drew Frank from his musings back to the present. “Will you be in medical school in the fall?”

Frank shook his head. “I decided against pursuing the fast-track program. I don’t have Gilbert’s discipline.” He doubted anyone had Gilbert’s discipline, though perhaps Anne did, if Gilbert’s descriptions were to be believed. “He won the prize, by the way.” Frank didn’t meet Bash’s eyes as he said it, but he heard a long exhale.

“I’d say maybe now he’ll slow down and stop getting fool notions in his head that he should do everything, but that doesn’t sound like Blythe.”

“I doubt he’ll care anymore. He only wanted the prize because he was so panicked about almost dropping out after last year’s tuition fiasco.”

“And all the while, Anne’s secretly killing herself writing stories in the middle of the night so that we can send him pocket money. Those two…” Bash sank in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

“Please tell me Gilbert doesn’t know that.”

“Doesn’t know what?” Roy had entered the room and couldn’t bother to pretend that he hadn’t overheard.

“If Gilbert thought Anne was suffering to give him money, he’d lose his mind. He worries as it is that he isn’t good enough to take care of her.”

“He told you that?” Roy asked in surprise.

“Gilbert is as silent as a monk about most things, unless you get him very drunk.” Which, sadly, probably explained why Gilbert got drunk so rarely. Still, the night before Roy’s telegram arrived, they had all been very, very drunk, and Gilbert had been unusually honest.

Bash glanced at Roy. “That’s where I went wrong. I don’t keep liquor at my house. I should have gotten him drunk and dropped him at Anne’s front door, when I first suspected he had feelings for her.”

Roy smirked for a moment before turning his attention back to Frank. “Anne adores him to a degree that makes me want to bang my head against a wall. How could he possibly think that?”

“He said he didn’t know it was possible to make so many mistakes, until he met Anne.”

Frank pictured Gilbert just then, only a few nights earlier, nearly tipping over into his whiskey as he confessed his fears. The guys had been ribbing him all night for pushing himself to such an absurd degree all year. A man had to be categorically insane to aim for the Strachan prize while doing extra course loads and applying for the college’s most prestigious internship. “It’s a wonder you’re still walking this earth,” Davy observed.

“I have Anne to think about,” he had proclaimed, swaying unevenly and banging his glass a little on the table. “After everything I’ve put her through, I have to give her diamond sunbursts and marble halls. Lord knows Roy would if he had the chance,” he’d muttered the last part into his glass, but Frank had been sitting right there and heard him.

“I know I’ve only met Anne once, but I don’t think she expects any such thing.”

“Well I’m not giving anyone the chance to pity me and blame her because I chose not to go to the Sorbonne. If I couldn’t find the money for school for some reason…” Gilbert shook his head vehemently. “I… _hate_ that I gave them any more opportunities to judge her.” Frank knew the story, so he just gave his friend a brotherly pat on the back. Gilbert’s regret was evident any time the subject came up. “Thank God she’s so forgiving.”

“Um, didn’t you say she once hit you over the head?” Frank tried for a bit of levity, since Gilbert was quickly becoming morose, and it didn’t seem to Frank that there was any reason to dwell on a years-old mistake. There was no evidence he could see that Anne regretted her choices.

“It was a fair hit. I called her Carrots. If you ever meet a pretty redhead, don’t do that. It’ll take you years to get back in her good graces.”

Frank quietly shared the story with Bash and Roy, who were both shaking their heads. “And here Anne thought he had nearly forgotten about her,” Roy groaned.

They could hear Gilbert’s agonized cries just then. Roy shot from his chair and took the stairs two at a time. Bash and Frank were still staring at the door anxiously when he returned.

“No change,” he explained, stopping to blink back a few tears. “Blythe asked for a little time to speak to her.”

The trio lapsed into silence, punctuated only by the occasional sniffle from one of them, or a sob from upstairs.

. . .

No one dared ask why the doctor had returned so late. The real answer was that he wasn’t sure Anne would live until the morning, but none of them wanted to hear him say it aloud. Gilbert was still blinking sleep from his eyes when the doctor entered Anne’s room, though he had returned to his usual chair by then and Diana had hastily straightened Anne’s blankets to cover up Gilbert’s serious breach of propriety (not that Diana cared, but it was hardly the time to argue about courtship rules). Someone had summoned Matthew and Marilla, and Matthew stood behind Gilbert with a firm hand on his shoulder. It was hard to bond with Matthew, since he was so quiet, but Matthew had embraced him in his own way. All Matthew needed to know was that Gilbert treasured Anne just as he did, to see the young man as his own family.

Marilla and Diana stood at the foot of the bed, hands clutched together, as they watched the doctor’s careful observations. He took her temperature once, frowned at the thermometer, and took it again. Gilbert began to think he might leap across the bed and strangle the man if he didn’t say something soon.

“Her temperature is down slightly,” the doctor finally remarked, and Gilbert felt the dull roaring in his ears stop for the first time in days. He knew enough about typhoid fever to anticipate the doctor’s next sentence. “I can’t say she’s out of the woods, but it is a good sign.”

Gilbert bit his lip and stared at his Anne through a haze of tears, silently willing her to keep fighting.

. . .

The first thought that crossed Anne’s mind when she opened her eyes and took in the harsh, late afternoon light, was that waking from a long sleep seemed far more romantic in fairy tales. Instead of her handsome prince leaning over her, she saw only ornate wallpaper and the top of a four-poster bed. More importantly, her head pounded so badly that she rather wished she could close her eyes and slip back into blissful unconsciousness. At least Gilbert had been there, in her dreams, stroking her face and whispering loving words in her ear. Though, normally dream Gilbert didn’t have dark circles under his eyes and streaks of tears down his face. Perhaps if she slept again, handsome, joyful, smirking Gilbert would come back.

A face did come into her view just then, but this time it was Matthew and Marilla. It wasn’t the same as a prince in a fairy tale, but a different kind of dream. Her loving family was here, and they looked so very relieved.

“Anne, we love you,” she heard. A smile crossed her features before she slipped back into her dream world.

She arose for only brief moments, taking in sips of water and enduring the poking and prodding of the doctor. She nodded dumbly a few times to answer questions that seemed directed at her, but she still wasn’t entirely certain if it was real. From time to time Gilbert was present in these strange, confusing moments, and then she was convinced that it must be real. Gilbert never smelled so right in her dreams.

The first time she tried to sit up, after her long, hazy slumber, she knew for certain that she wasn’t imagining things. For one, now her entire body hurt like hell. No dream would be so cruel. For another, Roy was peering at her from his perch next to her bed. In a million years, she never thought she would see Roy looking so unkempt as he did just then. Her brain would never conjure such an odd image. He fussed over her pillows and held her arm as she settled back against the headboard. After she took some water at his insistence, she found her voice.

“Are Matthew and Marilla here?”

“Yes, darling, they’re just resting now. Would you like me to get them?”

She tried to shake her head, but the muscles felt too tight even for that. “Let them rest. When did they come?”

“Six days ago. Do you remember?”

“Maybe,” she replied. Perhaps it had all been real. “Then…is Gilbert here?”

“He’s asleep just next to you.” Roy waved at the other side of the bed.

She propped herself on her elbow just enough to look down at the floor. Gilbert appeared to be in some kind of nest of blankets. Only his dark, messy curls were visible.

“Why isn’t he in a bed? There must be dozens of them in this house.”

Roy laughed ruefully. “The two of you will remain the most oblivious people in the world for the rest of your lives, I think.” Anne blinked at him in surprise. “Anne, darling, even I know that Gilbert could never be convinced to leave your side as long as you were in any danger. They tried to make up a room for him, but he refused. So, Bash finally gave up and dragged in some bedding so that at least he’d stop sleeping in chairs.”

“When is he going back?”

Roy shot her a disapproving look. “September.”

“But he’ll miss –“

“Now is not the time, darling. You’re still very ill. Blythe can handle his own affairs right now without your arguments.”

Her hands shook a bit as she searched for her next questions. “It was bad enough…that you contacted him?”

Anne hadn’t seen Roy cry since that long-ago afternoon at his brother’s grave, and she wasn’t at all prepared when he began to weep now. “You gave us a terrible scare.” She reached out a hand to comfort him as best she could, realizing only then that her hand looked frightfully bony and frail. It pricked her vanity a bit to imagine how the rest of her looked.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to…”

“I know, darling, I know. But still, be prepared to hear lecture after lecture about hiding it for so long. I know your heart was in the right place, but there is not a single one of us who would have chosen to find out like that. Remember your loved ones love you too, will you?”

“Love you,” she whispered through her tears. How he wished she meant those words the way he did when he said them to her, but the way she loved him was truly enough. Anne’s heart was big enough to find room for him, even if her soul sought out Gilbert in a way it never would anyone else.

They both turned at the sound of rustling sheets, but it seemed Gilbert wasn’t quite ready to join them, and he settled back into sleep with a deep sigh. Roy tipped his chin in Gilbert’s direction. “And be kind to that one when he wakes, alright? The two of you need to have a talk, but he’s been through hell.”


	22. Another Overdue Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne and Gilbert get a chance to talk and be cute

Marilla and Matthew came in soon after, to give her brief kisses on her forehead. Diana entered next, though she had to promise the nurse that she would only stay for a moment. The nurse disapproved of so many visitors. Anne convinced Diana to give her a mirror, which turned out to be a mistake.

“Oh Diana, I haven’t been this skinny and ugly since I was at the asylum!”

“Dearest, there is no need to worry about your looks, and you’ll gain weight back as soon as you can eat some more,” Diana assured her.

“I had such plans to be beautiful when Gilbert came home to visit,” she sighed.

“Gilbert always thinks you’re perfect, as he should.” Diana searched the room and produced a brush. “Here, I’ll do your hair, will that help?” Anne nodded happily. Diana brushed her hair smoothly into a single braid over her shoulder. It was true that she was terribly thin, and Gilbert was worried about it. There wasn’t anything Diana could do to fix that problem right now, though.

After the nurse tried to force some broth on her, she heard Gilbert move again, along with a sleepy, confused exhale. His tousled locks appeared at the edge of the bed, followed by a pair of very surprised eyes.

“Anne!” he exclaimed softly. “I didn’t know you were awake.”

“I wanted to let you rest.”

Gilbert cast a quick glance at the nurse, who had tactfully turned her back and was pretending to look over the doctor’s notes, before he leaned over to press a firm kiss to Anne’s cheek. “All I wanted was to see your eyes bright again, like this,” he breathed.

She traced her fingers up his jaw and cupped his cheek with her hand. “Look at these circles under your eyes. I’m sorry I gave you a scare,” she replied, lips quivering. “I tried imagining how I would have felt if it had been you, while I was waiting for you to wake up. I had to stop imagining because I was going to make myself cry.”

He held her gaze, brows drawing up as he fought to hold back his own tears, until he could stand it no more and pulled her into a fierce embrace. “As long as you promise to listen to the doctor’s orders and get better, I will forgive you.” He could feel her nod of agreement in the crook of his neck. They held each other quietly for a moment as Gilbert traced soothing circles along her back, until a pointed cough caught their attention.

“Miss Shirley Cuthbert, how nice to see you sitting upright.” Doctor Baker moved briskly into the room and began his examination without further preamble, while Gilbert watched intently. They shuffled aside for a moment and discussed something in low tones with the nurse. Anne’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t particularly enjoy being kept out of a conversation concerning her own treatment.

Gilbert returned to her side. “You need to finish your broth, Anne.”

“I was getting too full,” she protested. Gilbert could have sung to the heavens at the sight of Anne’s feistiness returning, but he still had a job to do.

“I said I would only forgive you if you follow doctor’s orders.”

“You’re not my doctor,” she grumbled.

He placed a hand on either side of her body and leaned over her, a familiar smirk playing across his face. “I’ve been deputized by Doctor Baker for this specific case, you see. He’s afraid my obstinate fiancée won’t listen to him.”

“Deputized?” He would be infuriating if he wasn’t so sexy.

“Yes, so until we say you are fully recovered, you’re going to try something new and follow my directions.”

“I don’t care for this at all.”

He laughed for the first time in weeks. “I know.”

“Fine,” she answered, leaning closer to him. He had nearly forgotten the other people witnessing their play-fighting, until she directed her next sentence behind his ear. “Doctor Baker, I will finish whatever the nurse brings me to eat. In the meantime, don’t you agree that Mr. Blythe has been burning the candle at both ends? I daresay that he needs a little time out of this room, a proper meal, a proper bath, and a good night’s sleep in a proper bed, don’t you?”

The doctor pursed his lips in amusement. “Family members of the recently ill are more susceptible to illness themselves, that is correct, Miss Shirley Cuthbert. Probably the stress of it all and the bad air.”

“I’ve already said to everyone that I am not going anywhere, Anne,” Gilbert growled in her ear.

Anne smiled in triumph. “Doctor’s orders.”

. . .

Gilbert eventually relented and allowed Roy and Frank to drag him downstairs for dinner, then up to another bedroom for a hot bath and a rest. He thought the entire fuss was far overblown, until he awoke nearly 14 hours later. As he buttoned up the most crisply ironed shirt he had ever seen and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he had to admit that Anne had been correct all along.

Of course, he had been correct too, he thought as he marched back to her room. Anne desperately needed to put on weight, so she would have to quit grumbling about broth and do what she could to keep food down. He found her dozing lightly while Diana and Roy pored over an art book they had found in Roy’s library. She opened her eyes when he came closer, and he was pleased to see that her color had improved even since yesterday.

“So handsome,” she declared, smiling up at him.

The four of them chatted for a while, though Anne was still quieter than usual, which was to be expected.

She reached her fingers up into her hair to braid it as she listened to her friends, realizing too late that her sleeves had fallen to the elbow, exposing her still-healing wound to Gilbert. From the flare of his nostrils to the hard set of his jaw, she knew in an instant that he had noticed.

“This was…well, it’s looking much better…,” Gilbert cocked his head in the way that he did whenever he couldn’t believe that Anne was so obtuse, and she sputtered into silence. His eyes slid over to Diana, who was looking everywhere but at him, and Roy, who was staring at Anne in shock.

“You two, please…” Gilbert said, catching Diana and Roy’s attention. To Anne’s surprise, Diana trudged out of the room without another word, Roy following her with a suspicious glare. She eyed the door, then Gilbert, and then the door again.

“I feel like I missed something.”

Before she could think about it a moment longer, Gilbert was on the bed, nearly hovering over her. “You can never, never, do this again, do you understand me? How could you keep this from me?!” Anne had no idea what to make of him just now. The anger in his voice made her temper rise to the surface, but his eyes were desperately scared and his mouth quivered.

“You know…about my injury.”

“Injury, Anne? It's not like you just tripped and fell.” Anne flinched a bit at that, and his eyes softened. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said it like that. But yes, about all of it. How you hid your illness, the…unwanted attention, you paying my tuition money, that you thought I would have been better off without you so that I could be at the Sorbonne…,” he hadn’t cried in her presence since she started to improve, but the tears fell in earnest now.

She wrapped her fingers around his neck and pulled him closer, until their foreheads were touching and she could feel the uneven pants of his breath wash over her face. She slid down a bit on the pillows and he shifted with her, until he was nearly half on top of her, one hand on her waist and the other brushing hair from her eyes.

“It’s my fault, I know,” he confessed. “I should have realized how selfish I was being. You must have felt so…alone, to think that you should…endure, without telling me, like that.”

“It’s my fault,” she argued back. “I should have known that you would want me to tell you, and that...you wouldn't regret choosing me. I assumed, and I was wrong.”

“We really are a pair, aren’t we?” he laughed, kissing her softly.

“So, if I were to write a story about this, the title would be, ‘Two Peas in a Pod Hide Things From Each Other; Should Learn to Talk’, is that about right?”

“As long as the subtitle is, ‘Two Peas Love Each Other More Than Anything in the World.’” He shifted again and looked at her deeply. “And as long as the end of the story says, Anne will never, ever, dream of, think about, or ponder, fleetingly, seriously, or otherwise, hiding issues pertaining to her well-being from Gilbert again, in the whole of her life.”

“You also cannot hide things, Gilbert Blythe. I haven’t forgotten about your tuition money or all your mutterings to Frank about not being good enough for me,” she replied, giving him her best arched brow.

“Frank told you that?” Anne nodded. “So Frank is a traitor too, is he?”

“Frank is a traitor like Roy is a traitor.” She buried her face in his neck, unable to stop her giggles. “We’d really be nowhere without our friends. We needed Diana to yell at you, Frank and Roy to make us talk…you’re right, we really are a pair.”

“Yes, now that you mention it, once again I was a complete idiot.”

“If you thought for a moment that you ever needed to get a scholarship or an internship to prove anything to me, then yes, you are. I have adored the idiot Gilbert Blythe, exactly as he is, since the first day he called me Carrots.” The idiot Gilbert Blythe let his fingers slip through the fiery hair in question. “For all I knew, you were going to be a…blacksmith, or heaven forbid, a minister, back then.”

“I concede that point but I want to make sure you are listening to my point. If you have a cough, I want a telegram. If someone is _following you home_ , I want the army on your doorstep. You can argue with me about overreacting some other time, but I want a choice about whether I should be doing something.”

She dropped soft, slow kisses along his open collar before pulling back to look in his eyes. “I won’t do it again, I promise.”

“Me neither.” He stroked a thumb over her eyebrow, down her nose, and slowly over her bottom lip. “And I won’t ever let you forget that I want to be married to you more than I want anything else in my entire life.” She kissed his thumb, and he leaned over to brush his lips over hers. “My Anne with an E. Future Anne Blythe,” he teased.

“Future Anne Shirley Cuthbert Blythe,” she shot back.

“I don’t have to say the entire thing each time, do I? That’s…quite a mouthful.”

“No, but my writings shall bear the name A.S.C. Blythe. It makes me sound like I descended from an old, noble family, don’t you think? Like there is a hidden fortune in a trunk, just waiting for me?”

“Ha, wouldn’t that be convenient? I might have some pride, but I wouldn’t turn down a fortune if it fell in our laps.” Anne wrinkled her nose at him in amusement, and he kissed the tip of her nose lightly. “Perhaps when we’re alone, I’ll just keep calling you ‘my Anne,’ as always.”

“I heard you calling me your wife when I was ill.”

He wasn’t meeting her eyes now. “Did you mind it so much?”

“No, I couldn’t be any more devoted to you if we were married right now. My husband,” she breathed, kissing him in earnest.

She ended up snuggled against him under the blankets, spoon-fashion, with his arms wrapped firmly around her waist. It felt heavenly, and she hated to disrupt the moment, but –

“Aren’t you worried about a scolding if anyone catches us?”

“Apparently, the only exception to the rules of propriety is that everything goes out the window in case of a medical emergency. They won’t bother us, and if the doctor needs to come in our friends will warn us first.”

“Huh, interesting.” They were silent for a while, enjoying a moment of peace together. “Gilbert?”

“Hm?” His voice sounded distant, like he was fighting sleep.

“We need to find a way to be alone, _really alone_ , once I am well.”

She could feel his body tense and he cleared his throat. “Let’s talk about it later. I think we can, um, figure that out, when you’re doing better. I feel guilty enough about kissing a recovering patient like I did just now.”

“I don’t feel guilty.” She felt him smile against her hair and he wrapped himself more fully around her.

“You just rest, and don’t worry about anything else.”

“I’m not worrying; I’m _anticipating,_ ” she purred, and she knew in an instant that he was anticipating too.


	23. Roy Loves Planning Parties and Gilbert Would Rather Make Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy and Gilbert's truce is over, now that no one is dying.

Diana was surely a very loyal friend. It was a quality that Roy ordinarily admired, but it was currently driving him to severe annoyance. “I don’t understand why you can’t tell me how she ended up with that cut.”

“Because it isn’t my story to tell!”

“Can’t we all agree that Anne is far too secretive and dispense with that logic?” Roy tried to put on his very best flirtatious drawl, but Diana merely narrowed her eyes and shook her head vehemently.

“You cannot seduce me into giving up secrets, you playboy.”

Roy scowled. “What if I try harder?”

“No!”

As it was, he still didn’t know what had happened hours later, when he was finally allowed back into Anne’s room with Cole to deliver afternoon tea. Anne pouted at the small bowl of plain mashed potatoes in front of her.

“This is not an afternoon tea food.”

“Are you going to argue with me every time we bring you something?” Gilbert sighed.

“Probably,” she replied, not missing a beat.

“Try it? For me?” Gilbert had never been one for pouting, until he learned that it worked wonders with Anne.

“Give me the spoon, you kill-joy.”

Finally, Roy could take it no longer. “Anne, darling, what happened to your arm?”

To his shock, her eyes began to fill with tears and the hand holding her spoon shook. “It isn’t important. The problem has been…managed.” Roy glanced at Gilbert, who was now clearly tense and angry, though he rubbed his thumb over Anne’s other hand soothingly.

“Sweetheart,” Gilbert said gently, “how about Roy and I go talk for a bit. If you’re okay with that.”

She nodded. “That’s fine.”

Gilbert pulled Roy outside and quietly relayed the entire story. “As you might imagine, I didn’t know that either. I would’ve…well, I don’t know what I would have done, but I wouldn’t have let her suffer alone.”

“Which is probably why she didn’t tell you. There wasn’t anything you could do to solve it, right away.”

“Exactly.”

Anne was in better spirits by the time they returned, having finally gotten the chance to hear some stories from Cole about his own love life. Roy flashed Anne an indulgent smile at the sight of her excited expression, and Gilbert couldn’t be bothered to be annoyed about it. Still, her face fell a little when she saw them, as though she suddenly remembered why they had left in the first place.

“Anne, I am very tempted to severely scold you now.”

“I didn’t tell you because I knew you would tell Gilbert.” Gilbert and Roy eyed each other silently. It seemed ironic that Roy was somehow more loyal to him than anyone else, but that was a question to ponder another day.

“Where is this man now?”

“Gone. Most people didn’t find out how I was injured, but my friends who saw it helped me report him to the school. They hadn’t done anything before because I wasn’t harmed.” She nearly shook with frustration. She tried reporting him to the school three other times, with no success. “He was thrown out of Redmond and left town.”

“Are you going to tell us who it was?”

“No, I am not allowing the two of you to form some kind of vigilante gang. It’s like you two think I was born yesterday.”

“What, you think Blythe and I are going to team up and scour Canada looking for this scoundrel? You read too many adventure novels, Anne.”

Cole leaned over to her. “It would seem that’s exactly what they were going to do.”

“I know, I can tell,” she giggled.

“You were supposed to come along too, Cole; what are you doing betraying our plan?” Roy demanded.

“Oh no, apparently I am the only one here smart enough to avoid Anne’s wrath. I am not asking any more questions and I do not join ‘gangs’ of any sort. Also, any plan that involves spending extended time confined in train cars with you and Blythe is a definite ‘no’ from me.”

“What? I am a great travel companion.”

Cole raised his brows at Gilbert. “What say you?”

“Well Gardner, we tried to agree on something, but I think we’ll have to give it up.”

Anne pulled him in for a quick kiss on the cheek. “Were you really going to scour Canada?”

“No, because then I would have to waste more precious time away from you. I was perfectly willing to let Gardner scour Canada, though. Let him call in some of those favors for good reasons instead of pranks.”

“He does love causing trouble, doesn’t he?” Anne laughed.

Gilbert narrowed his eyes at Roy. “Yes, he does.”

Roy smiled innocently and shrugged his shoulders. “Pranks are reserved for friends who really deserve just a bit of suffering.”

“Oh no, what will you do to me for making you worry?” Anne asked, wide-eyed.

“Darling, you could never do anything that would make me want you to suffer,” Roy replied with a gentle pat on her hand. Blythe rewarded him with an exasperated glare.

. . .

Anne improved, slowly but surely, until the doctor stopped tutting about weight and risks of pneumonia three times a day. She was even allowed to venture out of the room, after a week or so had passed, though only as far as the parlor. It hardly stopped Gilbert from asking the doctor 1,000 anxious questions a day, but she did convince him to go out with Bash and their friends for a few hours. It was a minor miracle that he agreed, though perhaps only because he was ambushed.

The night out was meant to be a celebration for winning the scholarship, though he struggled to summon any excitement for it, even now. Anne had been the one to tell him about it, after Frank decided she was really the right person to share the news.

Anne had been over the moon when Frank told her. “That is incredible! He’s so talented…,” she fairly gushed. Frank noted with amusement that Anne and Gilbert seemed to share identical adoring faces when they talked about each other. “He must have been so relieved when he found out. I’m surprised he didn’t say anything.”

“I haven’t told him yet.”

“What? Why not?”

“Well, at first, I didn’t think he would be very happy about the news.” Silence filled the room as Anne caught his implication.

“Right,” she murmured.

“Then after a while, I thought you might like to tell him. I know he overdid it, but he wanted it in the first place because of you.”

“Could you please warn me, from now on, if he’s putting too much pressure on himself?”

“I worry now that he’s likely to be more distressed wondering if you are alright, than he is about anything else.” Frank cast a sharp look at her.

Anne flushed. “I deserve that. But, I promise, I am very good at learning from my mistakes and I am turning over a new leaf. From now on, I’ll tell him about every ache and pain and bad day, in excruciating detail, until he stops asking.”

Frank laughed so hard that Cole and Roy came to investigate just what was so funny.

. . .

Of course, the idea to drag Gilbert out of the house came from Roy, though Bash enthusiastically agreed. It was the last night before they were to return to Avonlea.

“I’m not sure Gilbert is really in the mood, Roy…” Cole interjected.

“If we waited for Blythe to be in the mood to come out with us, we would all simply waste away and die in this room, waiting.”

“You’re assuming he will even agree.”

“You wound me. Do you think this is the first time I’ve dragged a fellow along to participate in an activity under duress? Do you know how many times I have forced men to accompany the ladies they fancy to the opera?”

“Except this time Gilbert already has a lady.”

“Yes, which makes this easier.”

“How?

“Is there an incentive more powerful than appeasing Anne Shirley Cuthbert?”

Bash piped up from the door. “I live with him. I can tell you the answer is no.”

Anne had been told that Gilbert’s friends wanted to have a little celebration for him, so she prepared to give him the exciting news before the festivities were to begin.

“Frank told me something very interesting today.”

“Oh?”

“You won the Strachan prize, honey.”

His eyebrows rose and fell as a dozen thoughts flew through his mind. “Really?”

She leaned over and pressed her lips to his, angling her head to give him a deep, thorough kiss. “I know you can do anything, my brilliant, wonderful man. Just…you don’t have to do everything next time, alright?”

It wasn’t clear if he was dazed because of the kiss or the news. “Alright.”

Gilbert shifted closer to her, sliding a hand up over her shoulder and around her neck. He was about to say something when a very persistent knock interrupted them.

“Blythe, you decent?”

Anne buried her face in his shoulder and began to giggle, while he pursed his lips in frustration. “What kind of question is that, Roy?” He asked irritably. The door opened to reveal a disconcertingly happy Roy, followed by an equally happy Bash and a notably less happy Cole.

“I don’t know what you do in here, with your fiancée, with the door firmly shut.”

“Have you ever considered not saying every thought out loud just because it comes to your mind?!” Gilbert said through gritted teeth. “Especially where Anne’s parents might hear you?”

“They’re outside with Aunt Jo, and everyone in this room knows exactly what kind of _attentive_ beau you are.”

Anne’s presence prevented Gilbert from hauling Roy out of the room by the collar of his shirt, so he simply threw a warning glare in Roy’s direction and prayed that Roy was done. Anne still didn’t know that Gilbert’s first late-night visit to her bedroom had been witnessed by the gang of troublemakers standing before them, and he wasn’t exactly keen to reveal that fact now.

Thankfully (or perhaps not so thankfully, it turned out), Roy had other ideas. “So, is our future doctor over here ready to go?”

“Go?” Gilbert asked, feeling a suspicious knot growing in his stomach.

“Everyone thinks you need to get out of the house and have a little fun."

“I‘m fine staying here and celebrating with Anne.”

“Blythe, we’ve planned a great night out. I know Anne will be happy to see that you are enjoying yourself and not just cooped up in here all day,” Roy offered innocently.

The knot in Gilbert’s stomach grew larger, as he turned back to Anne and saw her beaming smile. “You deserve to go out and have some fun, honey. Diana and Aunt Jo promised to keep me company.”

“Yeah, Blythe, you _deserve this_ ,” Bash said, smiling indulgently as Gilbert shot him a silent warning.

“Fine,” Gilbert replied evenly, deciding that he could shamelessly lie as well as the rest of these obnoxious meddlers. “I’m sure this outing will be everything I hoped tonight would be. Someday, I’ll have to pay you back for it.”


	24. There's No Place Like Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nights out, arguments, and snuggling (I'll leave it to you to guess who does what).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi - I hope everyone is well! I had some trouble figuring out how to end this, but now I've sorted it out and Roy has one last trick up his sleeve before the end (also more making out and thirsty Anne/Gilbert, because that's how we roll around here).
> 
> I hope you all are taking care of yourselves - shout at me if you're stuck in quarantine and desperate for fic - at this point I'd take requests. :)

“Another beer, Blythe?” Roy shoved the mug across the table without bothering to wait for a response.

Gilbert eyed him suspiciously. “This is the last one. I’m not suffering through tomorrow’s trip with a hangover.”

“Have some experience in that area, do you?” Roy asked with a smile, remembering their long-ago night out and wondering if his plan had worked.

Gilbert didn’t answer, but his expression suggested that he was suppressing an unpleasant memory.

“We must face it, Roy, Blythe will never want to spend time with us when Anne is available,” Bash said with a small snicker.

“’Available’ is a very delicate way to put it,” Roy replied cheerfully.

“Both of you stop right there – I am ending this evening unless you put a moratorium on any mention of me in Anne’s room. Am I the only one who worries about upsetting her parents with your talk?” Gilbert hoped his indignation would have some effect, but he doubted it.

“You’re over there complaining to me about bringing it up and you’re the one who would prefer _private celebrations_ with your intended…if anyone is going to give Mr. and Miss Cuthbert a reason for hand-wringing it’s you.”

“That isn’t what I meant!” Gilbert replied with impressively feigned outrage, considering that he knew Roy was entirely correct.

“Everyone here who thinks Gilbert was planning to spend the night behaving indecently with Anne if we hadn’t intervened, raise your hand.” To Gilbert’s dismay, even Frank agreed.

“She’s still recovering, you lechers.”

“Ha, and that’s the only thing holding you back, is it? Thank goodness you’re in Toronto where you can only make so much trouble.”

“Isn’t there something else we could talk about? My school work?”

“Gilbert, even I don’t want to talk about that,” Frank interjected.

“If we talk about your school work then I will simply remind you at every turn that you spent the entire semester with your nose in a book instead of writing to your fiancée. So, we can talk about that, if you like,” Roy said with an even smile.

Gilbert took a large gulp of his beer. “Considering how badly I messed up everything else trying to win this prize, I suppose it is some kind of divine punishment that my ‘celebration’ is actually torture.”

Bash gave him a brotherly pat on the back. “I’d say the Almighty has been quite kind to you and perhaps you should cheer up, Blythe. Anne is going home safe tomorrow, and you won your scholarship. Might be time to focus on that.”

Gilbert paused and sucked in a deep breath before he dared to look at Bash. The rest of them sat silently as they observed the exchange. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop worrying, after this,” he finally choked out.

Roy watched his drawn expression and finally decided to try being serious one more time. “You know, I do have some familiarity with loss.” Gilbert nodded but said no more, since he knew the story. “For more than a year, I insisted on walking nearly everywhere rather than getting in a carriage. I got upset every time my parents dared to ride in one.” Roy’s face was twisted into a wry smile as he remembered. “You can’t spend your life like that, trust me.”

“You make a good point,” Gilbert admitted reluctantly.

Roy’s smile turned genuine. “It happens on occasion. Now that we have that settled, I believe we need scotch for this celebration?”

“Not all of your points are good, Gardner.”

. . .

Doctor Baker arrived for one last examination before Anne was permitted to travel. He was pleased to find that his patient was well enough to return to her beloved home, though he warned her anxious family that it would be several more weeks, and possibly months, before she would regain her full strength. Gilbert caught up with him to give him a final thanks before he departed and then recalled the other question that had nagged at him.

“Doctor, have you spoken with Mr. and Miss Cuthbert about the bill?”

“It’s, ah, already managed, son.” The doctor hadn’t paid much attention to the cast of characters surrounding his patient, but his very observant nurse was certainly interested and held firmly to a belief that the handsome man who had already generously compensated them would happily sweep Miss Shirley Cuthbert away from her equally handsome fiancé, if given the chance. Mr. Blythe was a sharp man, so it probably hadn’t escaped his notice.

Gilbert proved his suspicions correct when he gave the doctor a hard look, and shouted, “Roy!” without ever turning his head.

Roy appeared almost instantly. “It’s impolite to bellow like that, Blythe. What if Anne hears? She will be distressed if we fight.”

“She’ll be more distressed when she finds out that you paid her bill.”

“Or, you could stop being so difficult and remind her that there is nothing wrong with accepting kindness from a friend who offers it freely. I would do anything to make sure that she is well.”

“So would I, Gardner.”

Doctor Baker pretended to search his bags in an effort to conceal his amusement. He hadn’t been a young man in quite some time, so he had nearly forgotten just how ridiculously romantic rivals might behave. The two of them were still bickering when the doctor left, though they gave up when Anne appeared on the stairs, dressed for travel and holding Matthew’s hand to steady her as she made her way to the hall.

With so many of them returning to PEI together, and so many servants to thank, the party gathered for quite some time before they were ready to leave. Roy steeled himself for his goodbye to Anne, for he wasn’t prepared at all to wait days or even weeks to hear from her. He might have advised Blythe not to waste his life worrying about Anne, but he wasn’t sure that he could follow the advice, himself.

Roy hugged her for as long as he dared before she disappeared into the carriage, wishing he could prolong their time together for even an extra minute. “You must promise me that all letters will contain the most important information pertaining to your life in the future.”

Anne grinned back. “You may rest assured that my lesson has been most thoroughly learned.” 

Roy said his last goodbye to Gilbert, with a firm handshake. “I would tell you to take care of her, but we both know you will.”

“I am grateful to you, Gardner,” Gilbert said, much as it pained him to admit it.

“I would say I didn’t do it for you, but that isn’t entirely true.”

“Then in the spirit of honesty, I will admit that if I’d found out first, I would have told you, too.”

Roy laughed lightly. “We should stop now before we discover anything else in common. We might stop fighting and what fun would that be?”

“I really don’t think we’re in any danger, there,” Gilbert replied with a smile.

. . .

The entire party arrived home to find Rachel and Hazel busily scrubbing the house and preparing supper. They both fussed over Anne as soon as she walked in the door, practically shoving her into a chair and thrusting a cup of tea in front of her.

“After everything you’ve been through, and such a journey, you shouldn’t be on your feet!” Rachel exclaimed. Everyone chattered at once and bustled around as they sorted out luggage and Aunt Jo, Cole, and Diana said their goodbyes. Gilbert said very little as he sat next to Anne, watching her closely as she raised a still slightly shaky teacup to her lips. Suddenly, he stood.

“Alright, I think that’s enough excitement for Anne today,” Gilbert took her hand to lead her upstairs. “I’ll help you get settled and bring your tea up to you.”

Anne smiled at him indulgently and heaved a dramatic sigh. “Doctor’s orders.”

“That’s right.”

Rachel and Hazel watched them depart up the stairs, eyes wide, though no one else paid them any mind. “She’s been home for 15 minutes. Isn’t he…overdoing this a bit?”

Marilla stirred her tea wordlessly, eyebrows raised. “That is him being calm and reasonable, right now.”

“Really?!” Rachel might have seen some rather shocking displays of affection from the young couple in the past, but ordinarily she expected Gilbert to be the more rational of the two.

“Give him a break, Rachel. We nearly lost her.” Marilla voice broke slightly at the end, and Rachel’s face fell.

Rachel nodded her understanding and patted Marilla on the hand. “We were terrified. I can only imagine how it was for you…”

“And for him. I think we may recover long before he does,” she said thoughtfully.

“I’d say that’s true,” Bash agreed.

“We can at least start with a good meal for everyone,” Hazel added, prompting Rachel to return to her task of peeling potatoes.

. . .

Marilla didn’t bother to utter a word of protest when Gilbert asked to stay in the spare bedroom. She was already well aware that the young man was unfailingly polite but also incredibly persistent, and she couldn’t spare the energy to respond to the litany of good reasons he would present to support this arrangement. As it was, Anne still had bouts of weakness and stomach upset, so it helped to have additional people around to keep watch over her. That wasn’t really the point, though. He needed her nearby, where he could check on her at any moment. Marilla found herself anxiously searching for Anne any time she seemed a bit too quiet, so she could hardly blame him.

Gilbert finally settled into sleep the first night, after listening intently for any sounds of distress from Anne’s room. He must have slept more deeply than he realized, because he didn’t wake until he heard her voice calling his name. He shot up from the bed and reached for her frantically in the dark, until his hand wrapped around one of her arms.

“What is the matter?!”

“Nothing, nothing,” she replied softly. He let out the breath he had been holding. He could feel her stepping closer as his eyes adjusted to the light. “I just…”she looked embarrassed. “Nevermind.”

“Anne –“ his other hand wrapped around her waist and he pulled her closer. “Tell me.”

“It’s too…quiet in there,” she muttered. “I haven’t been alone at night since…I don’t even know. Phil shares my room at school and…I just can’t.” She had been trying to stop her overactive imagination for months, from remembering every moment of fear and pain. These days, she was trying to push back the memories of those hazy hours of her illness. The worst had been when she realized that Gilbert’s terrified face, long fixed in her mind as a dream, had been real. It finally hit her, how close they came to losing their future together, forever.

Though he could think of dozens of good reasons to argue with her, none of those reasons outweighed his desire to stop the quivering in her voice. He lifted up the quilt, and she slid into the bed next to him. She ended up once again with her back to him, his arm wrapped firmly around her, his face buried in her hair.

“Is that better?” He whispered. He could feel her nod. “That’s because you belong here.” She scooted a little closer, and they both drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, the last three chapters will be mostly making out/smut, because don't these poor kids deserve it?


	25. Gilbert Loves Kissing and Would Like to Do More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert finds that being a young, unmarried couple at Green Gables presents some challenges ;)

Anne and Gilbert settled into a familiar routine as the summer stretched on. Anne would begin her night in her own room, watching her Snow Queen’s branches make shifting shadows across the floor. Then, once the house had settled down and Marilla was sure to be asleep, she would make her escape to the spare room. She tried once or twice to stay where she was, worried that she was playing a dangerous game and Marilla would catch them eventually. She would have been more worried about Matthew, but he never came upstairs. Whenever she tried staying, though, her imagination would eventually run away with her and she would end up back in the place that felt safest in the entire world.

Anne grew stronger as the weeks passed, but that hardly stopped Gilbert from worrying over her at every turn. He could hardly be convinced to leave her side for anything. He seemed to want to feed her every time she turned around, and eventually she started to beg Bash to invent urgent tasks for him just to give herself a moment’s peace.

Though neither of them knew, Marilla did suspect that the two of them weren’t entirely keeping to themselves at night, having heard the suspicious sounds of footsteps down the hall a time or two. She decided in this case that ignorance was bliss and simply avoided checking either room when the doors were shut. After everything that had happened, she didn’t have it in her to force any more separation between them.

Once, they had both awakened in the middle of the night, when Anne gave a sharp gasp.

“Anne, honey, are you alright?!” Gilbert whispered urgently.

“Just a…dream, I guess.”

“Come here.” She curled into his side and she felt him press a soft kiss to her temple. For some reason, she felt the stillness of the night even more acutely than usual. It felt like they were the only beings in the world, in that moment. She felt his head turn so that he could murmur into her ear. “Is that better, love?”

Hearing his words, she felt a surge of affection crash over her. “Of course it’s better,” she replied as she turned to him more fully. “I’m right next to you, aren’t it?” She suddenly needed to feel him as close to her as she could and lifted her head so that she could slide a hand over his cheek and cover his mouth with hers. His response was immediate, and urgent. She had sensed this for weeks, a desperation that lay just below the surface. He had nearly flipped her completely onto her back when he stilled.

“Anne-girl, I need to…I’m sorry I need to stop.”

Anne felt the immediate sting of rejection, but he continued before she could fully give into her fears and flee. “We are already playing with fire here, with you sleeping in my room. I could never face Marilla again if she trusted me enough to stay here and then found us…doing anything.”

“I guess I understand but…you’re sure?”

“I’m sure I don’t want to get caught.”

It seemed that Anne had taken a match to the kindling, though, and while Gilbert stuck to his convictions, it was obvious to Anne that the effort was excruciating for him. Gilbert’s growing desperation would have been comical, if she didn’t feel it so acutely herself. He threw himself almost frantically into helping on both farms, to the point that Bash actually asked him if there was some kind of problem. Even during the day, he would give her only passing kisses, though she would occasionally hear a suffering groan as he walked away. He confessed that he was afraid of losing his resolve if he gave in at all.

. . .

Anne supposed it had been inevitable that Gilbert’s anxiety would eventually come to a head, but he managed to overreact even more spectacularly than she had feared. By August, Anne felt almost entirely herself again, although her dresses remained a bit loose and she knew Gilbert was still fretting about her weight. She could feel his hands on her when they were in bed together, and she realized with some irritation that he was actually checking to see if her ribs were as prominent as they had been when she returned to Avonlea. It was certainly not the way to make his fiancée feel desirable, she thought with a grimace.

One afternoon in early August, she finally asked when he had to return to Toronto.

“I was thinking of asking the school if they could defer me for a year, so I can stay until you are done at Redmond. Perhaps Doctor Baker could use an intern….”

Anne stood abruptly, gripping the back of her chair to hide her sudden dizziness, though she hadn’t fooled Gilbert any.

“If you do that, I won’t speak to you until you return to Toronto.”

“Anne –“

“I am going to Diana’s. I’ll be back later.”

. . .

“What have I done to him?” Anne wailed as Diana patted her back. “Why would he even consider throwing off his plans like this?”

“Don’t be too hard or yourself, dearest, _or him_ ,” Diana added pointedly. “No one blames you getting sick, but it was truly _awful_ for him.”

“But we can’t spend the rest of our lives obsessing about it!”

“I know, but I think for you, you know you feel much better, and you’ll know how you feel when he isn’t around. He won’t be able to see for himself. He probably knows that you’ll be fine, but it’s hardly surprising that he doesn’t want to leave you. It’s not that surprising that he wants to be with his future wife, is it?” she asked with a grin.

“I hate that I made everyone worry so much,” Anne mumbled into her lap.

Diana pulled her into a fierce hug. “Be happy that you’re _well_ , Anne, and that you have so many people to worry.”

Anne dawdled for a few more minutes, until she had gathered the courage to return home. “Diana, your concert series is coming to Halifax in the fall, right?”

Diana nodded, her excitement unmistakable. “We are going to have so much fun when I visit!”

“And I will be the best friend of the star pianist. I can’t wait!”

. . .

Gilbert emerged from the barn the moment she returned and hurried to her side, though Anne noticed that he didn’t immediately pepper her with questions about fatigue, dizziness, thirst, etc., as he normally did the second that she returned from a stroll.

 _That’s certainly a welcome change_ , she thought with a wry smile.

At first, he said nothing, and merely wrapped her in his firm embrace. “I won’t say anything else about that suggestion,” he finally assured her.

“I don’t like that you’ll be worried,” Anne confessed. “I don’t like when I can see you looking for medical problems every time I walk into a room. I know I’m a patient, but I’m also your fiancée. Someday I want to…not talk about this anymore.”

“That day will come, Anne. And…I know I was overreacting. I knew you would kill me for even suggesting it – that’s why I put off mentioning it. It just – it was already harder and harder to leave you each time, and this time just feels like torture.”

Anne stood up a little straighter and gave him a mischievous grin. “And that is why I am going to visit you in Toronto, at my school break. And then, come next fall…I’ll be teaching in Toronto and you won’t have to leave me anymore.”

“Do you really mind leaving here? I know it’s a huge move.”

“I am a bride of adventure, Gil, or haven’t you heard? I think it’s about time to try the big city.”

“Oh no…you could get up to so much trouble…”

Her mischievous grin only grew wider. “I can’t wait.”

After they’d made up, and tearfully kissed, and all the rest, they settled down in bed as usual that night.

“I _forgot_ to mention earlier,” she whispered into the darkness, “I received a letter from Roy today.”

Gilbert was grateful for the moonless night, since it was likely that Anne couldn’t see his pout, with his face hidden as it was in shadow. “Is he well?”

“He’s having a house party for a few days at the end of the month. I know we’d talked about ways to find time alone…”

“I can’t imagine any home with Roy Gardner in it feeling terribly private.”

“But you know Roy. No one will bat an eye at anything we do. Just imagine the debauchery that has probably occurred in that house.”

Anne could tell from the tension in his body that she had made the correct argument. She turned slightly to face him fully. “Wouldn’t it be nice,” she suggested enticingly, “to have days and days with no family down the hall from my room?”

It seemed that her question broke something in Gilbert’s resolve, and his mouth crashed down on hers. 

Gilbert was utterly terrible at _just kissing_ in bed, it seemed, to Anne’s endless amusement. She could feel his hand, drifting slowly over her hip. He growled low in his throat, his fingers bunching into the fabric of her nightgown. Anne resisted the urge to giggle. Apparently, in his distress, he planned to return to his old habit of wrinkling her clothes to avoid putting his hands all over her. She hadn’t exactly missed those days.

“We’ll be alone soon,” she assured him.

He gave a groan that sounded almost like he was in pain, pulled away from her, and buried his face in the pillow. “You’d think that would help but you look perfect and you smell perfect and you feel perfect and you’re right next to me _every night_ and I’m losing my mind…”

“I’ll make it well worth the wait,” she whispered low in his ear.

That helpful comment only caused him to pound his hand softly against the mattress. Anne lovingly wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head on his back. “Why don’t I go get you some water.”

When she returned, she asked with a sly grin if he had solved his problem.

“Yes. I’ve resolved not to touch you any more tonight.”

“Oh…”

He held onto her hand as she laid flat on her back, leaving far more space between them than he ordinarily liked. He laid on his side next to her, propped up on his elbow and gazing at her adoringly.

“But if I could have touched you, I would have stripped off that nightgown so I could see every inch of your perfection.” Her eyes went wide as his fingers stroked over her palm lightly, still the only contact between them. He slowly pulled the ribbon on her braid, until the bow came loose. He threw it carelessly behind him and began to unbraid her hair, still never touching her skin. “I wonder what your hair would look like, tumbling down your bare back. I’ve been picturing it for so long….” He continued on like this, and within minutes, she was kicking her legs frantically and writhing on the bed, though Gilbert never came any closer to her. Apparently, with sufficient inducement, Gilbert’s imagination was as vivid as Anne’s, and months of sexual frustration had stripped away the last of his inhibition.

“…because I love being on top of you, feeling your hips moving with me, knowing your moans are for me,” he continued smoothly, though she could tell that he was also shifting next to her and she felt certain that he was also desperately turned on. He continued until she rolled over and crashed into him, muffling her cries in the pillow next to his ear.

He let her breath return to normal before he gathered her back into his arms. He indulged his own desires just enough to run his hands down her side and over her leg, before pulling her more fully against him.

“That was mean, Gilbert Blythe.”

“It didn’t sound mean.”

“I had no idea that you could just…talk me into an orgasm.”

“I didn’t know if I could either but boy, am I delighted to find out I can.”

“I bet I could do the same,”

“I have no doubt that you could do literally anything right now and that would be true, but we don’t need that kind of mess when you already made a suspiciously loud noise in the middle –“

“I did? I didn’t notice.”

“Thanks for the compliment,” he laughed.

“Well then, I’ll just have to pay you back some other time.” And just like that, he was back to taking out his frustrations on the pillow.


	26. Occasionally, Roy is Helpful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne and Gilbert's vacation is off to a great start!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it has been a tough time for all of us, and I really hope you are doing well and taking care of yourself. Thank you all for reading, leaving kudos, and commenting. I hope a little bit of Shirbert fun (and mild smut) brings some joy during a tough time. 
> 
> <3

The summer drew quickly to a close, and soon they were ready to face the start of harvest. After months of boredom, Anne was delighted when she was allowed to help (after a grilling from the local doctor and another grilling from Gilbert, much to her annoyance). She might have helped a little more than Gilbert realized, but after she was finally allowed back out into the fresh air and sunshine and feeling useful for once, she didn’t want to give it up.

Anne finally felt nearly herself again, and between Gilbert’s constant presence, visits from a steady stream of friends and loved ones, and the joys of satisfying work in the late summer heat, she hardly wanted it to end. Still, her mind was often far away, at a seaside estate on Cape Breton Island. Marilla had agreed that Anne could visit Roy’s family with Gilbert, though it pricked Anne’s natural independence even to ask. After causing her family so much worry, though, Anne thought it best to at least try to play a dutiful daughter for a while.

The night before their departure for Roy’s family home, they had a goodbye party with their families. Anne and Gilbert would both return to school as soon as their exciting sojourn into the world of wealthy seaside vacations had ended. Neither preferred to think about their impending separation, and the evening was unusually subdued. Everyone tried their best to remain upbeat and spoke mostly about their trip and Anne’s new role as Editor-in-Chief of the Redmond student newspaper, but at times their anxiety was apparent.

“Did the doctor have any concern about taking on extra activities?” Hazel asked quietly at one point.

“I have made weekly appointments with Doctor Baker and I’ve promised that I’ll listen to him if he says that I need to slow down. Phil’s received a letter from Gilbert too, I hear, about keeping an eye on me,” she added, glaring at her fiancé.

“I didn’t say it like that!” Gilbert exclaimed, holding up his hands in mock surrender. “I merely gave your roommate a summary of the symptoms she should watch, in case anything comes up!”

“I suppose I should be kinder, then,” Anne replied with an indulgent grin. “In the same way…I should say thank you to all of you. I know you made sacrifices to be with me when I was ill, and it means a great deal to me that you did.” She dashed a tear from her cheek just as Gilbert grabbed her hand, and on her other side, Jerry gave her a brotherly pat on the arm.

From across the table, Bash smiled. “You’d do the same for us, Anne,” he said simply. “We’re family.”

“Yeah!” Delly joined in from her perch on Bash’s lap. They ended the meal to the sound of laughter and Delly’s squeals.

As the dusk turned almost to darkness, Bash found Anne sitting on the porch while Gilbert readied the horses for their return home.

“Are you ready to return to school again?” he asked carefully.

“I’m never ready to leave home – or to leave him. I’ve never been ready, any time I’ve had to do it. And yet…I want things to return to normal. I miss the things I like about school. It’s time,” she added firmly.

“I’m glad. I think you’re right – it is quite obvious when you’re getting bored,” Bash said with a laugh. “You’ve written Delly enough stories to last her until she leaves Avonlea school.”

“But I have ideas for so many more!”

“I have no doubt you do.” They stood in companionable silence for a moment, while Bash searched for the best way to broach the next subject. “Thank you for talking Blythe out of that fool notion of waiting another year for school.”

“I didn’t talk him out of it – I flatly refused to let him do it.”

Now Bash laughed in earnest. “Of course you did.” He cast another sideways glance at her. “I know it’s been hard on both of you – being separated, getting ill…we’re all proud of you, you know. I’m proud of you.”

“You’re going to make me cry again!” Anne protested. “Besides, we made some terrible mistakes along the way.”

“You’ll both make plenty more mistakes where those came from. It matters that you keep coming back and fixing them.”

“I will accept your argument,” Anne replied with a playful nod. “I am very good at making mistakes, but I think I’m getting better at fixing them!”

. . .

Still, it was a happy and merry pair that departed Avonlea for New Brunswick, to enjoy a few days’ indulgence before the rigors of another academic year. Gilbert had been able to defer his internship until the following summer, so they were sadly aware that their time together would be limited in the near future. This time, though, they were able to plan for their difficult separation, and they knew that Anne would be in Toronto the following fall. It soothed them both to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

“And as I recall,” Anne observed as the ferry slipped into the Atlantic waters, “you said we would be married…was that the day of your graduation? Or are you willing to wait until the day after?”

“Let’s be wild and do it the day before,” Gilbert suggested with his trademark mischievous grin. It took everything Anne had not to kiss him right then and there, in front of every (likely) scandalized passenger. She reminded herself that she’d have opportunity enough to kiss him as much as she liked in very short order, and she felt a nervous energy building in her stomach. They’d hardly discussed their…intimacies, since that night in the spare room. Gilbert seemed to be going out of his way to behave properly, and in any event, they were both exhausted by the time the day’s harvest work was done.

Gilbert had never been very good at hiding his longing expressions, though, and at times she caught his gaze and her imagination went wild with possibilities. There was entirely too much time during corn-picking to think about exactly what could happen in a secluded bedroom during an entire uninterrupted night. A few of Persephone’s more creative suggestions from their talk long ago flew into her mind, and she actually gasped out loud. She blamed her reddened cheeks on the sun, but it was really all Gilbert and her very enticing fantasies.

Now they sat side-by-side on their way to a romantic tryst (well, really, a house party, but who was thinking about that?), and Anne’s nerves were getting the better of her. Despite their previous encounters, despite their engagement, despite the many, many nights they had spent wrapped in each other’s arms, this week was sure to be a big step in their relationship. Neither of them would dare to risk their futures with a pregnancy, so intercourse was surely off the table, but Anne could be sure of nothing else. She was sure only that she loved Gilbert desperately, that she would marry him this second if she could, and that she was tired of waiting to show him.

They spent a good portion of the ferry ride in silence, while Anne spun stories in her head of romantic walks along the beach, nature hikes, sumptuous food and dessert (this was a Roy party, after all), and when it was over, long, sensual nights with the man she loved. She realized after a time that all of her stories involved only her and Gilbert, so she began a halfhearted conversation about what they might do with the other guests.

“I am terrible with card games,” Anne lamented.

“It’s because you have no poker face, Anne. Your face gives away your every thought,” Gilbert laughed. “Maybe charades is better for you – your acting skills are superb.”

“Are you any good at croquet?”

“I wasn’t so bad at hockey – perhaps it’s similar?”

“I always thought you were very good at hockey,” Anne assured him, earning her a bashful grin.

“Good, because I was showing off for you.”

. . .

Roy’s carriage and driver met them at the ferry landing and whisked them away through the wind-swept countryside of Cape Breton Island to the Gardner family estate. It sat proudly at a bluff overlooking the ocean, with nothing around for miles but a few other palatial mansions dotted in the distance. The front of the house was eerily quiet when they arrived. It seemed impossible that a place inhabited by Roy Gardner could be so peaceful.

A bespeckled, formally suited butler answered the door before they had even ascended the steps.

“Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Blythe,” he greeted them as they stepped over the threshold. They eyed each other in confusion but merely nodded. He guided them into the massive formal living room, which stretched from the front of the house to the back, where the ocean beckoned. An elaborate tea spread was set out on one of the tables, though there were only two cups.

The butler held out a crisp, white envelope to Gilbert, face impassive. “Mr. Royal Gardner asked that we give you this immediately upon your arrival. We will leave you to get settled. Please ring if you need anything. Dinner is served at 8 o’clock in the dining room.”

Anne was busy gazing in awe at the incredible view of the bay out the massive French doors, while Gilbert read the note that was addressed to him. She turned as Gilbert sucked in his breath in shock, to find him staring dumbly at the piece of paper in his hand. Anne peered over his shoulder.

_You might have noticed that the guest list for this house party is a bit short. Rest assured, there are a half-dozen people, including Alec, who will swear up and down that we had a lovely time together for the next five days, if ever pressed. We all spent far too much time frolicking on the shore and eating massive dinners, don’t you remember? In the meantime, enjoy –_

Anne never had a chance to finish the note, for she felt Gilbert grab her hand and pull her behind him as he raced up the stairs. She had never seen anything like the look on his face just then, and she felt a thrill down her spine. He hurried past several rooms before turning sharply into a bright, sky blue and gold papered bedroom. Anne noticed that her bags were already on the floor, but before she could say a word she felt her back connect with the door just as it closed with a loud bang. Gilbert’s fingers were already tangled in her hair while he fumbled for the lock with his other hand. He crushed his mouth to hers, and she let herself open to him for a moment, before pulling back with a gasp.

“Gilbert! What has gotten into you?! What are we going to tell the other guests?”

He stopped for only a second, putting hardly a whisper of distance between their bodies. “There are no other guests,” he said with a devilish grin. “The staff has been informed that we are honeymooning here. Alone.”

“ _Wha_ –“ Gilbert cut off her shocked question with another fierce kiss.

“Apparently…” he murmured, sliding his mouth down her neck. “Gardner thought we needed some time away, just the two of us. So…he tricked us, a bit.”

“You didn’t know about this?” She gasped, nearly forgetting her questions because he wasn’t letting up at all. She gasped again, louder now, as he trailed his tongue behind her ear.

“No. I wish I’d thought of it myself. He had to go and be useful.” He scraped his teeth over her earlobe and was rewarded with a desperate whine. “Do you need anything right now? Water?”

“What?” Anne asked, momentarily pulled away from her arousal by his odd question. “No, why?”

“Because I need you out of this dress and once I have my hands on you, I’m keeping you in bed for a very long time.”


	27. Life is Messy and Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly Anne and Gilbert getting busy, with a lot of moments where they're just really soft.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I intended this to be done a looooong time ago, so I'm sorry to keep you waiting! Sometimes you want something to be really good and that makes it hard to write and...that's all I've got. Also self-isolation turns out to be extremely time-consuming? Who knew?
> 
> Anyway, I hope you really enjoy it and think it was worth the wait! Also, as you might have noticed, I decided to do one more chapter after this. I had some more stuff I really liked and I thought I should break it up rather than making you wait any longer for this chapter. I hope you enjoy both of them! 
> 
> As always, I hope you know how much I appreciate your comments and kudos. You truly make it such a fun experience to write these stories and to enjoy the characters. <3

It might have occurred to Anne to feel more abashed at the thought of Gilbert methodically stripping every inch of clothing from her body, under different circumstances. She was hardly a stranger to intimacy, but given the restrictions of time and place, they had never been in a position where they could be guaranteed privacy for long enough to dare go that far. When she considered the possibility in preparation for the trip, she’d felt a nervous tension building low in her belly, not unlike the one she felt the first time Gilbert slowly lowered himself on top of her. The night before they left for New Brunswick, she stood fully nude in her bedroom, turning this way and that in front of the mirror, anxiously assuring herself that he would most certainly enjoy the view. She did have a large bruise on her upper thigh from colliding with the kitchen table, she saw with a grimace, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that. She couldn’t go a week without accidentally bruising her legs.

Even when she thought of it later, she was surprised by her lack of inhibition in that lavish, secluded bedroom. Perhaps months of longing had finally replaced any nerves with desperation. Perhaps years of love and affection left her with no doubt of his reaction. Perhaps her illness had removed whatever last barriers lay between them. She wasn’t thinking rationally enough to consider such things, as Gilbert’s eyes turned molten and his hands boldly caressed her body, but if someone could’ve asked her in that moment, she couldn’t possibly have remembered that there was any reason she shouldn’t enthusiastically embrace this experience. Her minor insecurities and the staid propriety of society seemed to matter so very little when she was looking into the eyes of the man she’d promised to love, in sickness and in health, as long as she lived. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t said those words in front of a minister, as was expected of her. She’d said them to _him_ , in every way that mattered, and he proved to her every day that he would live them out wholeheartedly himself. There weren’t any more questions or discussions to be had.

So when his kisses continued, charting new paths with each button he released and lock of hair he unpinned, she gave herself completely to the moment. Gilbert lingered over each step, stopping to gaze lovingly at her and kiss her thoroughly as he savored each new discovery, and giving her ample time to help him out of his own garments. She started by sliding his jacket over his shoulders and letting it fall to the ground before he kicked it away. Then it was his vest, and then she spent a painstakingly long time relieving him of his tie. By the time she slowly let the fabric untangle from his neck, he pressed her against him with such force that her feet nearly left the ground.

“I’m not done yet,” she reminded him between long, lush kisses, making short work of the buttons on his shirt.

“I know you’re not done yet,” he growled back, “because we have _hours_ until eight o’clock, and you will be very, very busy until then.” She hadn’t entirely understood what it meant to go weak in the knees when she’d seen it written in books, but now he did have to hold her up, just for a moment, as his words overwhelmed her with want. The sound she made must have alarmed him, because he pulled back and watched her closely until she captured his lips again and helped him dispense with his shirt.

“You’re alright, sweetheart?” he asked, though he barely had the words out before he was gasping at the sensation of her hands trailing down his torso and fumbling with the buttons on his trousers.

“I’d be better if you would finish what you were doing,” she whispered in his ear, earning another pained gasp as he gripped her hips tightly and buried his face in her hair.

By the time they had dispensed with all but underwear and chemise, Gilbert gently led her over to the bed. This part, at least, was a little familiar to her, and it was comforting to remember that what was happening was not wholly new. She settled down against the pillows as she had done before, in the times when they had stolen careful moments of tenderness mere feet from their families. Gilbert soon followed, letting his body partially drape over hers as he propped himself on his elbow and stared down at her. The silence was heavy, but neither of them felt the need to break it. Anne watched as Gilbert reached out his free hand to brush aside her hair, letting it fan out on the pillow behind her. Her gaze was still fixed on his hand as he traced a path over her shoulder, across her collarbone, along the swell of her breast, and down to caress her hip.

“Anne…,” he breathed, just before he pulled her flush against him and gave her a whisper of a kiss.

“I thought you wanted to see more,” she teased, though the challenge in her voice was unmistakable.

“I want to enjoy every second of this,” he replied, lifting her chin so that he could trace a line of kisses from the tip of her chin down to the lowest spot he could reach before her chemise blocked his path. He grinned up at her as he watched her chest rise and fall with uneven breaths. “But if you’re ready…”

It was all the inducement Anne needed, and in a scramble of arms and legs and mouths and hands, they were finally completely bared to each other.

Anne let herself enjoy the view for a moment, before she drew her attention back to Gilbert’s eyes, still scanning her with rapt attention. She had a sudden memory of him from that day at the boarding house, since he was making almost the same face he had just after he kissed her for the first time – dazed and a little scared, like he couldn’t believe what was happening and was terrified that the moment would fade to dust if he made a wrong move. She shifted a little to snuggle closer to him, breaking the spell. His expression was pure adoration as he pulled her firmly against him and cradled her face in his palm.

“Anne…my beautiful wife,” he choked out, and she could see a sheen of tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. “Every time I think you can’t get more incredible, you surprise me. Do you have any idea how stunning you are?”

“Do you want me to use every word I can think of to describe how handsome you are to me?”

“Handsome is good enough, sweetheart,” he laughed, just before he traced his fingers along her ribs and let his thumb rest just under her breast.

As his mouth brushed over her lips, then across her cheek, and down her neck…soon following the same path as his hands, she sighed contentedly and let herself be lost to the sensation. He was worshiping her, with every reverent touch and adoring word. By the time he pressed soft kisses to her hips and let his hands drift slowly between her legs, she could hardly have remembered anything but the feeling of his touch and the look in his eyes as he glanced back at her for her approval.

“Gil,” she gasped, letting her fingers sink into his hair, “you know what to do.”

He grinned back, and his dark gaze made her body burn as he skimmed his hands over her hips. “I am a fast learner, after all.”

. . .

In the prim and proper world of society, no one ever dared mention that the most wondrous moments in life took place when everything was messy and out of place. No one revealed that loving courtships might begin after months of misunderstanding and heartache. No one shared that engagements might result from fumbled declarations and nervous giggles. Certainly no one would ever admit that the most incredible moments in a romantic relationship might occur when clothes and bedding were strewn across the room as if a war had broken out, and the lovers would be found with hair mussed, skin flushed and slightly bruised with sensuous attention, and bodies fused and unashamed of sights, scents, and sounds that would horrify polite company. Perhaps that was the secret of lives lovingly and honestly shared together. There was no danger of judgment or shame, when two people in love gave in to their deepest trust and pledged to share their hearts and bodies with each other.

Anne wasn’t really asleep, but after she had finally cried Gilbert’s name into his ear over and over and savored every ounce of pleasure he could give her, she wasn’t ready to move, either. She couldn’t possibly imagine what she would say to him that could match the depth of her feelings as she listened to his heartbeat and heard his deep, even breathing permeate the otherwise still afternoon.

 _And Persephone said that intercourse could be even more exciting, with a little creativity_ , she thought with a satisfied grin. Married life certainly might have some advantages.

Her mind kept wandering as she flitted in and out of consciousness, as though crafting a delightful play of her life with Gilbert. Once or twice, she shifted uncomfortably as her mind conjured images of bonfires and torn letters, only to be pulled back from the brink as his arm tightened around her waist. More often, the scenes in her mind showed gentle smiles in the flicker of the Christmas tree candles, competitive smirks across the schoolroom, triumphant glee as he jumped out of a carriage and reached for her, tentative joy as he stared at her in her darkened bedroom, anxious hope as he held out a ring in front of her. Finally, she couldn’t stand to feign sleep any longer, and she raised her head to gaze lovingly down at him. His eyes snapped open almost immediately, so apparently his mind was also occupied somewhere other than dreamland.

“We still have time before dinner,” he murmured, reaching out a hand to draw her head back to his chest. “Rest, love.”

She let out a breathy laugh against his warm skin. “Are you so convinced that you wore me out?”

From her current position, she could feel rather than see his satisfied expression. “You wore me out. I’m guessing you feel the same. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong and I will rectify the situation immediately.”

“I am deliciously, shockingly exhausted,” she confessed, wriggling back up his body until they were face-to-face and enjoying his smoldering look of satisfaction.

“That was the idea,” he whispered, his voice rumbling low in his throat. She couldn’t help but be very, very pleased that they still had five more nights ahead of them. She realized vaguely that packing a nightgown had likely been a useless gesture, but how could she have possibly explained to Marilla that she would have no need for nightwear?

She snuggled a little closer still and let her hand splay over his chest as he stroked her tangled hair away from her face. “I’m so happy we’re here right now,” she said, tears unexpectedly springing to her eyes. She didn’t mean to let out a choking sob, and by the look of Gilbert’s alarmed expression, he hadn’t expected it either.

“Anne-girl, what—”

She cut him off immediately with a kiss and stroked her fingers over his jaw. “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect this. I just…this almost didn’t happen.”

She regretted her statement almost in an instant, when she saw a tear roll out of his eye and hit the pillow. “I can’t imagine what I would have done if you…,” he trailed off, lips quivering.

“I will always do everything in my power to stay with you.” She grabbed for the light duvet at the foot of the bed and slid her leg over his hip as she threw the blanket over them, as though cocooning them in their own little world could prevent any pain and heartache in the future. “If I have any say in it, I am going to protect you, and live with you, and argue with you,” –that one earned her a snort— “and love you just like today every day for the rest of my life.”

There were more tears staining the pillows now, from both of them. “Can we make that our vows?” he finally asked, voice still wavering.

“Let’s say them a few times so we don’t forget.”

They drifted off to a peaceful rest as they nestled into a familiar embrace and repeated their vows to each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This could probably serve as an end unto itself, so the last one is a bit of an epilogue and a chance for one last little bit of Roy (since I'm pretty sure the two of them had forgotten he existed in the middle of everything that happened in this chapter). It is about half-written, so it should be up much more quickly!


End file.
